BRANCH COUNCIL

I began taking lessons from Russ Spaulding in March of 1999.  I had just inherited my maternal grandfather’s set of bagpipes and met Mr. Spaulding on St. Patrick’s day.  (My grandfather, Donald MacKenzie, immigrated from Dundee, Scotland in 1925 and lived in the Finger Lakes area of NY.)  The inception of the Chattanooga Pipe Band occurred in the Winter of 1999, and I have been a member ever since.   Throughout that time, I have also had the pleasure of playing with the Atlanta Pipe Band Grade 2 and the Nashville Pipe Band Grade 4.  I’ve been fortunate to have had the pleasure of serving as the Pipe Major of the Chattanooga Pipe Band while we have competed in Grades 3, 4 and 5 over the years.  In solo competition, I have competed off and on since 1999 and have reached the Grade 2 level.

Personally, I am the proud father of 3 and work as a school administrator in a middle school in Chattanooga, TN.

Hannah Boyles started her pipe band career with the Grandfather Mountain Highlanders in 2009. She has been competing at a professional level in both bass and tenor since 2013.  Hannah has written scores and provided instruction for bands throughout the southern United States. She graduated from Methodist University in 2018 with music degrees in Percussion Performance and Music Education.

While in school, she joined the Grade 2 City of Dunedin Pipe Band, winning the 2018 World Pipe Band Championship. The following year, she competed with the City of Dunedin Grade 1 band winning the North American championships. She now resides in Dunedin working as a full-time music teacher while instructing private lessons for bass, tenor, and snare drum.

I am the proof that you can teach an old dog new tricks!  At the ripe age of 52, with no musical experience, I started my journey into Tenor and Bass Drumming. 

My wife had joined Jamestown Pipes and Drums and I spent a couple of years being a roadie for the band before taking up tenor drumming. 

It was a rough start at first, down right laughable at times. With the help of band mates and drummers from other bands and a lot of hard work I became a descent tenor and bass drummer. 

A health issue 5 years ago has placed limitations on what I can do, but the knowledge and desire to preform and teach is still there. 

Our former Drum Sargent encouraged all the drummers in the band to take advantage of opportunities to develop their knowledge of all things involving drumming. Then we were expected to share what we had learned with anyone who needed help. 

As a result of those opportunities, I have been able to work with 15-18 different individuals/bands across U.S. with an array of issues. 

And to take it one step further I have been blessed to be able to host a Tenor and Bass Workshop here in Greensboro NC. We bring in 4 of the top teachers in the USA to give beginner and intermediate drummers from all pipe bands one of those opportunities to improve there skills and knowledge. 

Over my 11 years with Jamestown I have been band manager, Vice President and helped teach several tenor drummers. I also steward the Tenor and Bass Solos at Grandfather Mountain Highland Games and the Stone Mountain Highland Games. 

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