|
 |
||||||
2003 East Coast Tionól Reviewby John Maze The East Coast Tionol hosted by Pat Sky in his lovely town of Chapel Hill North Carolina was a tremendous affair. As you all know the teaching staff was made up of Eoin O Riabnaigh, Benedict Kohler, Dr. Patrick Hutchinson, Deborah Quigley, and Todd Denman. I was in Eoin's advanced class and got dragged into the master class (I suppose for humor value) so I can attest to the rigor of Eoin's teaching. I have friends who took Benedict's class and understood quite clearly how masterful his teaching is, though I understand he had to beat off with a stick all of the folks chomping at the bit for pipes of his make... including myself at times. 
The whole thing kicked off with what was to be a series of demonstrations and performances as people signed in and Pat collapsed the registration table on himself. Weary from travel, a bunch of us snuck out with Quigley (who i directly blame for our deliquency during the weekend) to have a few pints and some food. Several rounds later, Deborah returned with a few to the demonstrations whist others of us wandered around Chapel Hill looking for a place out of the rain to play... none was found until much later that evening. A rather large session broke out in an upper room of a local brew pub led by Deborah Quigley and Patrick Hutchinson that lasted for a while. There was the usual exchange of piping solos and Rogge regulator seranades with some really fantastic sets. I was squeezed between Dr. Blevins (sans new set at that point) and Dr. Hutchinson, so I spent a lot of time staring at really nice pipes and fixating on Patrick's tastey regulator playing... and on it went with Pat and Eoin downstairs at the bar discussing the merits of European medicine and corrupt American politics, and Benedict poised half-way up the stairs as though guarding the sessioning going on. Personally, me thinks he was avoiding hearing me making one of his sticks sound less than ideal in my hands. I seem to recall that the party moved to the bar at the Holiday Inn til we were coerced to depart, but that is the exact point at which my memory starts to fade coincidentally enough. Lessons started up with the requisite wandering around UNC's campus... next tionol is going to need GPS coordinants I am afraid... those pipecases get rather heavy after a while. The morning and afternoon lessons were divided by a wonderful exhibit of Carolina Bar-B-Q... which served to make us all very drowsy for our afternoon classes. In Eoin's class, following each of us embarrassing ourselves with a tune that we were working on, Eoin taught us a jig and a slide. I was late arriving so I was stuck to his immediate right... which of course meant I led off the humiliation each time around. We also made a couple of passes around with tunes that Eoin then dissected and critiqued quite thoroughly. He is a credit to the culture of uilleann piping and a very generous teacher I must say. In all I seem to remember there being around a dozen of us including but not being limited to Travis Hicks, Pelham Norville, that hotshot from Nashville Skip, the insatiable Nick Whitmer (who was noticeably absent in the afternoon I must point out) and Seth Gallagher. All in all, it was a good and supportive group. 
The concert that night started with a bluegrass trio from the hills of North Carolina with a gentleman that strangely resembled Pat Sky himself. I tell you there was a hootin' and a hollerin' to be heard while those boys cranked through a few sets to warm us up. There was also a few sets by Dr. Hutchinson and Ms. Quigley who both waxed poetic of their times with the late great Chris Lagan. Never since hearing Benedict play with Brian McNamara in the Catskills have I heard such perfect piping in unison. This feat was then followed by sets by Benedict playing with the fiddle teacher Willie Kelly. Todd Denman then played some lovely sets with an even lovelier young fiddler that brought down the house. Last but never least was Eoin who played through what should have been three or four encores rather than just one. There is one particular run up the changer in the jig learnt in class that Eoin showed off, involving basically every key on the chanter... I will never get it but man is it lovely schtuff anyway! There was a mighty party that followed in a lovely but highly quirky house... owned obviously by an artist with a very acute sense of humor. Many different sessions resulted from the abundance of drink, merriment, and pizza most importantly. It was noticeable that a few of dem really fine pipers sitting around in one particular sunporch of the house... surely someone would open a case... eventually someone did. I believe it was the young former apprentice to John Pederson (name?) who had a set of his making there. Man was he good (name?). Anyway, one of the better sessions I bore witness too and participated in nonetheless took off until the wee hours. In the post-wee hours, I understand that Susan Ward, Patrick, Benedict, Deborah and so forth continued back at the hotel long after most of us had collapsed. All I can say is at checkout time, the esteemed Dr. Hutchinson did not seem terribly fond of the sight of sunlight. Master class followed led by Eoin, who walked us through every possible variation and trick to the Steampacket... I believe it was Joe Kennedy who was there just prior wrapping up the various pieces of a very lovely set before strapping them onto his bike for the long ride home. All in all, it was a lovely tionol... just lovely. Pat and his wife did a fantastic job as did everyone responsible for planning and executing it all... not only did I learn all about Chapel Hill by being lost within it for most of the trip, I also learned to talk like a pirate and several very fine jokes that my wife no longer allows me to tell in public.
|
Website by pd Design