Bring Out Your Inner Bagpiper with Brian Boru Irish Pipe Band
Irish bagpipes make a church parking lot in Roseville seem otherworldly.
If you find yourself in Roseville, Minnesota on a Tuesday evening during the summer months, there's a good chance over the din of traffic, lawn mowers, and edge trimmers you will hear bagpipes and drums.
The Brian Boru Irish Pipe Band practices outdoors in an area church parking lot as they prepare for their upcoming appearances. If you've been to the Minnesota Irish Fair, the Minnesota Scottish Fair, or the St. Patrick's Day parade in Saint Paul you likely know the band well. They're sort of hard to miss.
Passersby and on-lookers are encouraged to stop, look, and listen.
Pipe Major John McCormick says about the people who take a break to listen, "It's nice, sometimes we'll get done playing and there will be a lone person clapping, which is fun." Fun appears to be a key-aspect of the experience.
Drawing members from across the Twin Cities, the band offers free lessons to anyone who wants to learn to play bagpipes, or the drums. The pipes aren't easy to play and it will take a year, or two before you graduate from learning the fingerings of the chanter which has a double reed like an oboe but sounds a bit like a kazoo to the full-fledged bag and pipes; however, after spending time with the fun-loving group of dedicated musicians if you have an inkling that you'd like to try the band encourages you to show up.
The Brian Boru Irish Pipe Band practices outdoors, weather permitting, in the parking lot of St. Christopher's Episcopal Church.
