Snohomish Piper at the Olympics Curling Events

Alexander began learning to play bagpipes at age seven, much to the surprise of his parents. His grandmother bought a “practice chanter” to keep his interest while she told stories of a trip to Scotland. He enjoyed it, and worked his way through all of the simple lessons in the book that came with it. He soon began taking lessons from one of a couple of full time bagpipe instructors in the Seattle area, Kevin Auld and soon joined Northwest Junior Pipe Band, practicing hard and quickly rising through the amateur competition ranks.

Alexander lives in Snohomish and attends Sky Valley Education Resource Center in Monroe as a homeschooled student. Traveling to Shoreline for band practice twice a week, private lessons twice a week, Vancouver, BC monthly for competitions, performances, and events keeps Alexander and his family very busy, but the opportunities provided by the activity have been rewarding, including performing several times on television, at Seahawks games, Mariners games, and at the 2008 World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, where the band placed 5th in the world at their competition level in a field of 23 worldwide bands.

Alexander leads the Northwest Junior Pipe Band in competitions as Pipe Major – a similar responsibility to the director in an orchestra. He won the “Grand Aggregate” in Grade 2 in 2009, meaning he gained more points than any other piper at his grade level in Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia. He was promoted to the top amateur competition grade 1 before turning 14, and is currently the youngest piper at that level in the region. Alexander also takes “Piobaireachd” (pronounced pea-brock) lessons, the classical music of the bagpipe from top US piper Brian McKenzie, who lives in West Seattle and recently won the Silver Medal at “Winter Storm” in Kansas City, placing ahead of 25 top bagpipers from across the country, Canada and Scotland.

Dowco Triumph Street Pipe Band, a world class Grade 1 pipe band based in Vancouver, BC won the right to be the official bagpipe band of Curling at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver and were determined to share this memorable experience with youth from around the region. Three youth from Northwest Junior Pipe Band were invited, as well as youth from two other bagpipe bands in Canada. Alexander performed five times with four other musicians as part of a “micro-band” leading the curling teams onto the competition field before the events on Tuesday the 16th, Wednesday the 17th, and again on Wednesday the 24th for the tie-breaker events. The crowd noise was so overwhelming when the Canadian team came out into the arena, Alexander couldn’t hear the musicians directly in front of or behind him. For an instrument often able to be heard up to a mile away, this was a unique experience for him.

Alexander, has performed professionally for highland dancers, weddings, birthday parties, funerals, and many other events that benefit from the unique and stirring experience of a performance on the Great Highland Bagpipe. Contact him with questions about scheduling.

Video is available from one of his Olympics performances here >> 

The second piper. Photos by Craig Mathews, Dowco Triumph Street Pipe Band

Photo by Craig Mathews, Dowco Triumph Street Pipe Band

2nd from left. Photo by Craig Mathews, Dowco Triumph Street Pipe Band

Far left. Photo by Craig Mathews, Dowco Triumph Street Pipe Band