It was pretty inevitable that I'd become a drummer. My dad played bass and tenor drum with the Denny & Dunipace Pipe Band for many years. I was born the weekend of the North American Pipe Band Championships and attended my first highland games at 4-weeks-old. They tell me that I used to blissfully sleep the day away in a little cradle underneath Dad's bass drum in the center of a circle of pipes and never even woke up, let alone cry.

As a tiny boy, I started taking snare lessons from one of dad's bandmates, Jon Quigg. (Another favorite parental anecdote is that I'd focus and drum for a bit, then go dig in the dirt with my sticks, then come back for more lesson - I couldn't have been more than 6.) Anyway, by the time I was 11 I was taking regular snare lessons from Walt Birtles and actually competing with Clan Campbell Pipe Band.

I tore a swath through the solo circuit, winning Grade III EUSPBA Champion Supreme as a 7th grader, and was promoted to Drum Sergeant of the band before I even had my driver's license (age 15). Once I reached Grade I as a soloist, I hit a plateau - unable to focus on solos due to my responsibilities as Drum Sergeant and my participation in a competitive high school marching band.

Finally, in early 1999, I left the band that I'd played with for so long to join the City of Washington Grade II Pipe Band as a rank drummer. It has been a fantastic move - I am playing with a more advanced corps and can finally play some challenging scores, I don't have to worry about getting a corps ready for competition so I can refocus my energies on solo competition and finally move into Open drumming, and -best of all- I am playing and studying once again under my boyhood instructor and good friend, Jon Quigg. Oh, and did I mention that little World Championship thing? =)

Even though I am not a Drum Sergeant anymore, I am still sought-after as an instructor and writer of drum scores in the Mid-Atlantic region. I teach several workshops each year from New Jersey to Virginia, instruct the drum corps of the Baltimore City Police Emerald Society Pipe Band and have a number of private students that I teach. It is not a full-time job, but it keeps me busy and pays the bills, so to speak. After all, drumming has made it possible for me to see Scotland and Canada, to appear on national TV [The Kennedy Center Honors - CBS, Wed. Dec. 29, 1999!] and make a lot of lifelong friends. And it's fun.

I am also currently the Chairman of the Mid-Atlantic Branch of the Eastern United States Pipe Band Association - a job that puts me right in the thick of things for bands, games organization and the like. I am also involved in the equipment end of things. I have consulted with folks from the Pearl Corporation for several years now and have appeared on their web site with technical tips on tuning and also in several of their print advertisements for Pearl Pipe Band Drums and Heads. As of 2004, I am selling Pearl pipe band drums through a relationship with a local music store and my Pearl contacts. So, if you need something, drop me a line!