Pipe dreaming

Glasgow's Piping Live! festival, which runs from August 11 to 18, is 10 years old this year and is marking the anniversary with a wide range of events. It will overlap with the World Pipe Band Championships on Glasgow Green, and together the two events will guarantee that the city will be alive with pipe bands.

The Worlds are this year, for the first time, a two-day format, over the weekend of August 17 and 18.

As ever, Piping Live! is attracting large numbers of visitors from overseas, here to play, spectate, or act as volunteers. Figures for last year show that of the 13,358 visitors, 18%, or 2400, were from overseas. It's a trend that shows no sign of slowing down in 2013.

Among those attending the week-long event will be 16-year-old Elisa Nguyen from the Netherlands, and 74-year-old Scots expat Jim Gillan from South Carolina in the US.

Elisa is looking forward to being among the spectators at the event.

She says: "I started playing the bagpipes when I was just seven, which is quite unusual for the Netherlands, because most kids start playing at the age of 12 or even older.

"I was five when I first saw the bagpipes. I can't remember the moment but my mother told me that I was very excited and eager from that day on to play them."

What intrigued the young Elisa was the unusual sound and appearance of the instrument. Pipe bands are not exactly a common sight in her homeland.

"I kept begging my mum to play pipes and after a couple of years she searched for piping lessons in the local area," says Elisa. "She stumbled upon a band, which doesn't exist any more, here in my hometown of Alkmaar. That was my first pipe band.

"What motivates me about piping," she adds, "is the amazing sound of it and the sheer sensation of playing the pipes. I also love the idea of getting better - I always want to improve my skills. I'm switching pipe bands next season, and my goal is to be playing in a Grade 1 band."

Her new band is the Concord Pipe Band, which was established in 1975 and is considered to be one of the leading pipe bands in the eastern Netherlands.

It is now looking for players who want to join its 2015 World Pipe Band Championships campaign. Elisa says it is also aiming to compete in a major event in 2014 as preparation for Glasgow the following year. She herself will, by then, hopefully, be competing in the Worlds.

The teenager will be here for three days for Piping Live! It won't leave her much time for other activities - though she does hope to do some shopping in Glasgow.

This will be her second time in the city, as she was here in 2007 for Piping Live! and the Worlds.

Similarly, Jim was fascinated by pipes bands from a very young age. "I became interested in the pipes when I was five years old," he says. "I lived in Shettleston and there was a ladies' pipe band that practised on Darleith Street. One Sunday I followed them from there all the way down the Gallowgate to where the old Belgravia Hotel stands.

"My grandmother lived across the street from there and a neighbour spied me and took me to her. That adventure earned me a warm bum ..."

JIM, his mother and his sister emigrated to the States in 1947, and settled in New Haven, Connecticut, where there was a substantial Scottish community.

However, he never actually had the chance to learn the pipes until he was 61. "I've been struggling with them for 14 years," he says. "I did play with a band that competed at Grade 4 level in the States, though.

"I first attended Piping Live! and the Worlds in 2006, and have returned every year. This will be my third year as a volunteer at Piping Live!"

He'll be kept busy during his time here - attending Piping Live!, going to evening concerts, mixing with the spectators at the Worlds, visiting family, and sailing across to Dunoon to call in on friends.

Jim adds: "My main reason for attending and returning every year is the piping. While it probably will never improve my playing, it has greatly improved my listening skills. I now can fully appreciate the Grade 1 bands and the various soloists that I get to listen to during Piping Live!

"Another great thing is the people whom I've met and see every year. I now have people I consider friends from Scotland, Canada, Germany, France and Australia. I relocated to South Carolina in 2010 and I now know more people at Piping Live! than I do over there."

Piping Live! runs from August 11-18 with more than 150 events taking place in various venues, including family fun days and free performances in St Enoch Square to concerts by the best contemporary and traditional pipers.

See www.pipinglive.co.uk