This Year's Bands
Stravaigin, Vermont’s leaders in Scottish music, have combined forces to create a new supergroup, Stravaigin. We have united our deep roots in the Highland and Hebridean traditions to create an innovative sound based very firmly in the music of our ancestors. Stravaigin brings extremely exciting music to audiences everywhere who love traditional music.
Elizabeth and Ben Anderson, a Boston-based Scottish fiddle and cello duo, have an enthusiastic following in the U.S. and internationally. Blending Scottish tunes with lively rhythms and innovative harmonies, the pair create a sound rooted in tradition, inspired by the contemporary, and completely original. On stage, they captivate audiences with their ability to effortlessly communicate musical nuances as only siblings can.
Catamount Pipe Band is an organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Celtic music, tradition, and culture. They have 7 New England, and six Northeastern Championships titles, and are four-time finalists in the World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow, Scotland.
Prydein is an American Celtic rock group. They are notable for their use of bagpipes in a rock band setting and have released five albums to date. Prydein has played many major festivals up and down the East Coast and in the Midwest United States.
This Year's Chieftain
Judy Campell
Judy first heard bagpipes at about age 4 in the Santa Claus parade in Toronto, and immediately announced to her parents that she wanted to play, an announcement they pointedly ignored. However, at age 13 she met a schoolmate who played, and she began learning with P/M James Murray of the Branch 58 Canadian Legion Pipe Band in Hamilton, Ontario. She was also a member of the affiliated Murray Girls Pipe Band which in addition to piping gave highland dancing performances. She played with the bands for 6 years, until leaving for university and eventually heading west. The bagpipes went on the shelf for several decades while living in a small town in northern British Columbia, but her interest in piping never waned. In 2007, she joined the Quesnel Pipes and Drums and in 2008 she attended her first Piping Hot Summer Drummer school put on by Simon Fraser University Pipe Band. She became a regular attendee and it was there in 2009 that she met her partner, Donald Lindsay, falling in love first with piobaireachd and then the teacher. Judy now divides her time between Wells, British Columbia where she spends most of the winter skiing and playing with the Quesnel Pipe Band and Petersburgh NY where she spends summers playing with the Catamount Pipe Band. Judy has also been studying Scottish Gaelic for 3 years at Colaisde na Gàidhlig.in Nova Scotia and assists in organizing the Vermont Institute of Celtic Arts Gaelic Club.