Na Píobairí Uilleann

Chairman, NPU

An Píobaire

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6 5 23 20101217 23 traditional to the most avant guard experi- mental music exemplified by groups like MILLISH from the USA and THE GOAT SYSTEM from France. The international dimension was further strengthened by groups like the GRIFF TRIO from Belgium, an extraordinarily virtuoso group playing numerous different pipes and who turned out to be one of the ‘finds’ of the festival. This group improved at every turn of the festival and made a major contribution to the status of the festival. They kept coming up with thoughtful and extreme- ly well executed arrangements for pipes rang- ing from Pastoral pipes to their ‘offspring’ the uilleann pipes, French Cabrette to Galician Gaita and finally various types of Flemish pipes often illustrated in the paintings of Breugel. They also sang to their own accom- paniment in both French and Flemish. Georgi Makris is the first ever Greek piper to perform at the Festival and what an impact he made with his beautifully tuned pipes and haunting melodies. Like many European pipers Georgi sings to his pipes accompani- ment which is some feat considering the pipes are not bellows blown. Apparently the bags hold a lot of air so they can fill up enough to allow him to sing and play alternate verses. THE SATURDAY SHOWS Saturday’s programme kicked off at 10am with some 20 instrumental, singing and danc- ing classes at St Malachy’s PS, the Marketplace Theatre and St Patrick’s Trian. Then at 11am we had the eagerly anticipated film premier of Sally Walmsley’s film A Perfect Passion at St Patrick’s Trian. This film has been in the making since 2008 and looks at activities within the Armagh Pipers Club from its foundation in 1966 to the pres- ent day. Another newcomer to Armagh was Stepjan Veckovic who played a little on each of several different types of pipes from his native country Croatia. His final piece was played on the Croatian Duda, an extremely sophisticated and rare type of bagpipe. It con- sisted of one short chanter that contained 4 reeds so that the player was able to enrich his performance with drone and regulator accom- paniment all controlled through one simple chanter. CATHEDRAL SETTING St Patrick’s Church of Ireland Cathedral pro- vided the spectacular background to the after- noon concert appropriately called Pipes in the Cathedral. The highlight of this concert was the World Premier of a commissioned piece from the Cork singer Lorcán Mac Mathúna entitled Táin Bo Cuailgne, The Cattle Raid of Cooley one of the great epic stories from the Ulster Cycle of heroic tales. Armagh was a most Conor Mallon – first recipient of the Mark Donnelly Bursary, created in his memory by the late Mark Donnelly’s family Paul Eliasberg

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