The Pikes Peak Highlanders are set to compete for the first time at the World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, after years of preparation and fundraising.
The pipes, the pipes are calling from a parking lot.
But soon they’ll be calling all the way from Glasgow, Scotland, where 20 pipers and 10 drummers from the Pikes Peak Highlanders Pipes and Drums will compete for the first time at the annual World Pipe Band Championships on Aug. 17. They’ll also compete Aug. 10 at the Abernathy Highland Games in Abernathy, Scotland, and Aug. 11 at the Perth Highland Games and the European Pipe Band Championships in Perth, Scotland.
“To play in Scotland and at World is obviously a big goal and big deal,” said Highlanders Pipe Major Andra Stoller.
“Many bands never go. Only a few decide this is something we want to accomplish. It’s something we joked about when I became pipe major. It seemed insurmountable. A pipe dream. We’d talk about it and think it was a great idea but it never went anywhere.”
More than a dozen pipers gather in a circle in the parking lot of a small business complex on a steamy July night. In go the earplugs, out goes their breath, as they blow into their mouthpieces and dance their fingers across the eight finger holes of the chanter, which looks like a recorder. This small, reeded part of the instrument might only produce nine notes, but those are enough to make up the rich catalog of bagpipe tunes.
As they belt out the notes two other musicians walk around the group, holding their phones up to each piper’s three drones, the parts that stick up out of the bag held under the piper’s arm. They use an app to make sure each is in tune.
“Pipes are something you love or you do not,” Stoller said. “Those who do not like pipes are those who haven’t heard them played well. They are a difficult instrument, difficult to tune and ensure you have a great sound. If you don’t they’re a bit painful to listen to. Having a great sound makes a big difference.”
While the pipers spend half an hour getting in tune, a squad of four drummers huddles around the far side of a building, working out their beats.
Finally, the two musical forces congregate — pipes in front, drums in back. Stoller hollers a command and the group strikes in, moving forward as the sound of the pipes lights up the evening, transporting one to an Irish pub, the Scottish Highlands, a military funeral or the musical “Brigadoon,” where men and women in kilts, white long-sleeved button-ups, dark vests and caps with pompons serenade you.
The Pikes Peak Highlanders practice in an office building parking lot last week.
The musicians rehearse moving into a circle formation, where they can watch Stoller’s fingers play the notes and her feet keep the beat as they go through a medley of “The Weary Maid,” “The Barnyards of Delgaty,” “Jenny’s Bawbee” and “Walter Douglas.”
The group finishes their first run through on this balmy night, more than a month before their Glasgow performance, and the sound of at least one drone hangs in the air after their last note. That’s a no-no in the competitive world.
Highlanders President Pete Keiser, who’s standing off to the side listening, remarks that while it’s a worthy performance, it won’t win them awards. Groups are judged on their ability to play as a core.
“Pipe bands should start with a bang,” Keiser said, “and end with silence.”
Hundreds of bands from around the globe will try to nab the title of champion. There are no qualifications needed to compete. Judges, who are high-level pipers and drummers, will look for excellence in tuning, sound, cohesive playing, accuracy and how they present themselves while marching in. It’s a tall order — in a group of 20 that means tuning 20 chanters and 60 drones, then making sure everyone’s fingers are moving at the same time and drummers are striking at the same time and with the same dynamic and sound.
Members of the Pikes Peak Highlanders warm up their bagpipes before practice July 18. The group will soon be headed to Glasgow, Scotland, to compete in the World Pipe Band Championships.
Members of the Pikes Peak Highlanders warm up their bagpipes before practice July 18. The group will soon be headed to Glasgow, Scotland, to compete in the World Pipe Band Championships.
Members of the Pikes Peak Highlanders warm up their bagpipes before practice last week. The group soon will be headed to Glasgow, Scotland, to compete in the World Pipe Band Championships.
071924-fam-highlanders 4.JPG
“Sound is No. 1 and unison,” Stoller said. “That cut-off has to be a perfect vacuum of sound so it all stops immediately at the same time.”
The road to competition
A new lead drummer with previous World experience helped the Highlanders begin to move forward on their dream.
“We had not only gotten better over the last 10 years, but we now had someone with the experience of going to Scotland,” Stoller said. “The combination of the two really allowed us to start making plans.”
In late 2020, the group set the goal of going to Scotland, says Highlanders treasurer and drummer Natalie Smiley, and spent the last few years raising $60,000 to cover a number of costs related to competing: new drones and chanters, lodging for the band in Scotland, buses to the competition, shipping the drums.
Naturally their biggest moneymaker was St. Patrick’s Day weekend, but there were also competitions, the Colorado Renaissance Festival and Hogmanay celebrations, what Scots call the last day of the year. And despite all the money raised, members will still have to pay for their flights, food and transportation outside the group’s specific events.
Though there are monetary prizes for winners, that’s not really the goal for the Highlanders.
“To play and play well at World’s is our primary goal,” Stoller said. “We want to be in the finals and would love to place in the top three bands and win, but the monetary prize was never a huge deal.”
Highlanders history
A member of the Royal Canadian Air Force founded the group in 1985, and almost four decades later active duty or veterans still make up most of the group.
“Many of the military memorials involve pipes,” said Stoller, who’s an Air Force vet.
“We play for every soldier’s memorial that we are requested at Fort Carson. If a soldier dies on active duty we provide a solo piper to play for the memorial. We’ve also played for many funerals for active duty Air Force members and many of the police, fire and EMTs.”
Stoller picked up the pipes more than two decades ago after service in the Air Force. A stay at home mom with three kids, she needed something creative for her mental health, she says, and pipes, which she’d heard as a kid at highland festivals, seemed just the thing.
After moving to the Pikes Peak region she connected with the Highlanders’ previous pipe major and started taking lessons before joining the band.
“It’s considered to be one of the two most difficult instruments,” Stoller said. “The other one is the concert violin. That’s what I’ve been told.”
Keiser, an Army vet, started playing the pipes around 14, took a break for a decade, then resumed during the pandemic.
“It’s unlike anything I’ve ever heard before,” Keiser said. “I have a lot of Scottish-Irish heritage and being able to connect to something with my people is great. The instruments are used at funerals, weddings, the battlefield. You can’t get that anywhere else.”
The group’s youngest player is 10 and the oldest is in her late 70s. Anyone is welcome to join the group, which Stoller calls a teaching, performance and competition band. They offer a weekly beginner hour and also use an online program so people can learn at their own pace.
For those who have experience on pipes or drums, they have to learn a list of specific tunes. It’s not necessarily an audition, but a kilting. If they pass the kilting tunes they’re invited to become a member and are issued a kilt, chanter and other items.
“There’s something satisfying about playing,” Stoller said.
“It can be very meditative when you’re playing longer classical turns. It can be fun, entertaining, challenging. Not only is it great to do individually, but to have all those experiences with others who enjoy it makes for an amazing community.”
