Bagpipe band to compete in World Championships in Scotland

Deb Siebert figures she must be passionate, crazy or both.

Siebert and her husband, Paul, who live in Manito, near Peoria, travel 170 miles one-way weekly to practice with the Midlothian Scottish Pipe Band in Lombard.

The bagpipe band, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, will travel to Glasgow, Scotland, to compete in the World Pipe Band Championships Friday and Saturday, Aug. 14 and 15.

Siebert, a bagpiper for 26 years, has competed in the championships before with other bands, but going with Midlothian is special, she says.

"Midlothian has a heart and soul that other bands just don't have, which is evident when we're together playing music," she says. "People who don't know about piping and pipe bands don't understand how we can commit so much time and money, the hours of practice, the hours on the road each month year after year.

"But this is Midlothian! This is the only band I ever want to play with."

Other members of the group's 35 bagpipers and drummers, who range in age from 14 to their 80s, feel the same way. Started 40 years ago in the South suburb of Midlothian, the Scottish pipe band still has several of its original members and generations of families involved with the band.

Tristan Wilson took over as Midlothian's pipe major, its organizational and musical director, two years ago after the band had undergone some changes in membership and leadership. He was delighted to find the group was holding its practices in Lombard, where he had recently bought a home.

"Midlothian is a legend among pipe bands," he says. "A group of people recognized around the world for what they've been doing for the past 40 years."

Andrew Watson, the lead drummer who, like Wilson, is in his second season with the band, feels the same way. Watson played with a pipe band in college and with three other pipe bands in Chicago.

"When I started playing in pipe bands, Midlothian Scottish was the band I dreamed of one day playing in. I remember the first time I saw them, I told my parents that someday I would be good enough," he says.

"To play with a band with such history, that is full of people who just flat out care about each other, is truly a dream come true for me."

Competitive band

Midlothian was formed under the leadership of drum major Ian Swinton and lead drummer Jim Sim back in 1975. At that time, only a few bagpipe bands existed in the Chicago area and bagpipers had to go to Canada to participate in competition.

Swinton and Sim wanted a competitive band and succeeded in creating one. Within 10 years, Midlothian rose from Grade 4 to the highest level, Grade 1, and one year was named best overseas band in its grade level at the World Championships.

Midlothian is now classified Grade 3A, but its prospects are pointing up. The Midwest Pipe Band Association named it Champion Supreme for 2013 and 2014, and it will earn that title again this year, Wilson says.

Midlothian last competed in the World Championships in 2001, but Wilson is confident it will make a good showing this year. More than 200 pipe bands from around the world come to the championships, where Midlothian will compete against 29 other Grade 3A pipe bands.

"I think we've got a good shot at our level," he says.

Swinton, who retired as the band's pipe major six years ago, still participates and will accompany the band to Scotland. He led the band to world renown while making his living as a carpenter.

"Hope we do well," he says of the championships. "It's become a way of life, an addiction."

Swinton's daughter, Evette Miller, has played with the band since she was 10 and led it for a couple years as pipe major. She expects this year's trip to Scotland to add to the many memories she has of playing in the band - memories that include opening for Rod Stewart and playing at halftime at a football game in the snow.

"It was cold, wet, but what fun," she recalls. "Winning countless contests. Getting to do something special with my dad every Friday for 35 years. Too many special memories to mention."

For love, not money

Members pay their own way to the World Championships. While there is a trophy to be won, it stays in Scotland and the prize money is small, says Jaime McCorry, who joined the band as a teenager in Midlothian.

She and her sister still play in it. McCorry remembers her first trip with the band to Scotland. There were no direct flights to Glasgow, and the group had to spend two days in Iceland after it missed one of the two flights that went out each week.

"I just want these first-timers to have a really good trip," McCorry says, "It (the World Championships) is the Olympics of pipe bands."

Band members such as McCorry have shared birthdays, graduations, weddings, births, new jobs, retirements and the passing away of some members. It's that familiarity that helps keep them together, they say.

"Love of the music and love of the people," McCorry says. "It's like a big family, warts and all."

Swinton, who now lives in Wauconda, says it doesn't surprise him that Midlothian has lasted this long. He and Sim, the lead drummer, put the emphasis on the music and education.

Sim, who retired from Midlothian after 35 years and now serves as president of the Midwest Pipe Band Association, says the two avoided letting it become political.

"I thought it was led right. The common goal was about the music," says Sim, who became Midlothian's lead drummer at age 18. "A lot of us grew up in the band."

Interest in pipe bands has grown over the years. Sim says the Midwest Pipe Band Association, with more than 40 member bands, is now the largest it has ever been. Changes in the music have helped contribute to the growth, he says.

"The music is more interesting and intricate," he says.

Midlothian has helped foster the interest by educating young players. Bagpipers trained in Midlothian have gone on to lead other bands, judge contests, teach, and go into publishing and retail businesses in the pipe band community, Midlothian historian Bruce Miller says.

Midlothian's junior program was restarted 18 months ago under the leadership of Bill Smillie, 84. Eight pipers and two drummers ages 10 through 18 participate.

Smillie travels from Skokie Friday nights to work with the junior pipers, including his great-grandson. The juniors and adult band practice from 7 to 10 p.m. Fridays at St. Timothy Church in Lombard.

Bagpiping is not hard to learn and doesn't require a lot of stamina, but it helps to be taught right, Smillie says.

"There are only nine notes and one scale and a lot of embellishments," he says. "The hardest part of bagpipes is blowing the bagpipes."

He adds that children often catch on more readily than adults.

"I love teaching children (because) they do what you show them to do," he says. "Any kids from 10 to 18 are welcome to join the band. It's free."

Many people like Smillie, who grew up in Scotland, got involved with bagpiping because it is part of their family heritage. But others are simply attracted by the instrument and the music.

Matt Swanson of Roselle grew up in a musical family, and played piano and trombone before taking up bagpipes about a dozen years ago.

"For me, it's playing an instrument that nobody else plays," he says. "It was a lot of fun."

Swanson and most of the band will travel to Scotland ahead of time to participate in the weeklong PipingLive! festival before the championships. On Aug. 15, they'll play in qualifying match and, if they are among the bands chosen, go on to play in the finals later that day.

But prize or no prize, Midlothian Scottish Pipe Band is sure to go on playing in parades, at the Highland Games and wherever else competition may be found.

"You are not going to find anything like it," Wilson says. "The fact that it's alive and well at this time is a tribute to the draw of the pipes."