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I started learning to play the pipes at the age of 13 at Peary High School in Rockville, Maryland, when my name was Paula Porter (Yes-Paula Porter, Peary Piper). My brother, Steve, joined the band first and taught me how to play the scale. The Air Force Pipe Band was stationed in Maryland at that time, so the Peary Band had excellent teachers. My piping teachers in my high school years were Donald Lindsay and Sandy Jones. I studied at the Invermark College of Piping summer schools in Petersburg, New York in the early 70's, and was attacked there with a love for Piobaireachd. In 1971, I had the incredible opportunity to study for two weeks at Invermark with Bob Brown, and then in 1974 with Bob Nicol. Their inspiration during those brief summer sessions has lasted a lifetime. In 1981, I attended the Balmoral School of Piping in Erie, Pennsylvania to study with Jimmy McIntosh and Donald Lindsay. In the Fall of 1995, I was privileged to study at the College of Piping in Glasgow for two weeks with Angus MacLellan and P/M Angus Macdonald, compliments of the US Piping Foundation. I received the Senior Certificate from the Institute of Piping. In the fall of 1970, when Sandy Jones and Walt Birtles re-formed the Denny and Dunipace Pipe Band to provide a competition band for the new crop of Peary High School graduates, I was one of the charter members. I was 15 at the time, and still played in the high school band as well. Sandy brought one of his students from the Annapolis Pipe Band to join the Denny Band in the spring of 1971, and my life has never been the same. Charlie Glendinning and I were married on February 23, 1974. Charlie wrote "Moonstar" for our wedding. Charlie and I have played in the Denny Band (aka Scottish & Irish Imports, and now known as the City of Washington Pipe Band) ever since, except for three maternity leaves for me, and one sabbatical for Charlie. The band is a source of great friendships and memories, as well as musical challenges. Winning the 1995 North American Grade 2 Pipe Band Championships in Ontario and placing 2nd in Grade 2 at the 1996 World Championships in Glasgow were both thrilling experiences. The band's trips to Scotland in 1973, 1985, 1989, 1993, and 1996 have helped build friendships with the "other" Denny and Dunipace Pipe Band, particularly with Bob and Karin Deuchar and family. I began competing in solo piping as a teenager, but left the solo scene during the years that we had pre-schoolers at home. Since our three sons are fairly far apart in age, this took about 17 years! Andy is now 22, Kit is 18, and Penn is 10. In 1993, I returned to solo playing. I went on a search for new (or old) bagpipes. Charlie offered a trade-his set of pipes, which Jimmy McIntosh thinks are1919 Lawries made from McDougall bores, for my 1969 Grainger and Campbells. (Love is blind.) Brian Yates and John Kidd repaired a cracked, but magnificent old set of Henderson? or Lawrie? drones, which Charlie is now playing. (Sacrifice has its rewards.) I'm having great fun with Piobaireachd and solo playing again - except for being physically sick before every competition. The contests that give trips as prizes are the best. Over the last three years, Charlie and I have been part of the volunteer staff of The VOICE, the quarterly magazine of the EUSPBA. We spend more hours than is physically possible on Macintosh computers to help produce The VOICE. The fun part is seeing each issue come back from the printer. I am an elementary school substitute teacher and should get hazard pay for catching every virus in the county. I am also a solo bagpipe teacher, for which I should also get hazard pay. Some of my joys in life outside of bagpiping are: playing with our tremendous Border Collie, Kip; singing loudly at the National Presbyterian Church; canoeing with Charlie; watching Penn play baseball; listening to Kit play the piano; learning geeky computer skills from Andy; back-packing in Glencoe; and gardening at home in Ashton, Maryland.
E-mail Paula Glendinning --> inning@aol.com <-- Back to CoW Members |