William Kennedy International Piping Festival
Encyclopedia
The William Kennedy International Piping Festival is an annual music festival held since 1993 in Armagh
, in the north of Ireland
. It usually takes place in November and has attracted players of all variants of bagpipes
from many parts of Europe, North America and North Africa. The festival includes public concerts, school concerts, reed workshops and other events. It is organised by Armagh Pipers Club, a teaching organisation founded in 1966 by the uilleann piper
Brian Vallely (also well known as a painter, under the form John B. Vallely) and fiddler Eithne Vallely. Both are still closely associated with the Club and the Festival, which has its 18th edition in November 2011, and other notable traditional musicians in the family include their sons Cillian
and Niall
.
Armagh
Armagh is a large settlement in Northern Ireland, and the county town of County Armagh. It is a site of historical importance for both Celtic paganism and Christianity and is the seat, for both the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Ireland, of the Archbishop of Armagh...
, in the north of Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. It usually takes place in November and has attracted players of all variants of bagpipes
Bagpipes
Bagpipes are a class of musical instrument, aerophones, using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. Though the Scottish Great Highland Bagpipe and Irish uilleann pipes have the greatest international visibility, bagpipes of many different types come from...
from many parts of Europe, North America and North Africa. The festival includes public concerts, school concerts, reed workshops and other events. It is organised by Armagh Pipers Club, a teaching organisation founded in 1966 by the uilleann piper
Uilleann pipes
The uilleann pipes or //; ) are the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland, their current name, earlier known in English as "union pipes", is a part translation of the Irish-language term píobaí uilleann , from their method of inflation.The bag of the uilleann pipes is inflated by means of a...
Brian Vallely (also well known as a painter, under the form John B. Vallely) and fiddler Eithne Vallely. Both are still closely associated with the Club and the Festival, which has its 18th edition in November 2011, and other notable traditional musicians in the family include their sons Cillian
Cillian Vallely
Cillian Vallely is an Irish musician, born in Armagh, Northern Ireland. He plays traditional Irish music on the uilleann pipes and low whistle, and studied at the Armagh Pipers Club with his mother and father, Brian and Eithne, and then with the late Armagh piper Mark Donnelly...
and Niall
Niall Vallely
Niall Vallely is an Irish musician, born about 1970 in Armagh, Northern Ireland. In 1966 his parents, Brian and Eithne Vallely had founded the Armagh Piper's Club, but he chose to learn the concertina instead, from the age of seven. His brother Cillian plays the uillean pipes and low whistle,...
.