RYAN MORRISON's BIO

Ryan Morrison is the state of Alabama's ONLY Fully Professional Ceremonial Bagpiper, serving Alabama and the Southeast since 2004. With nearly fifteen years of experience as a performer and entertainer, Ryan is available for weddings, funerals, birthdays, anniversaries, and all other special events anywhere in the state and throughout the region.

As well as a career musician and entertainer, Ryan is the Pipe Major and Musical Director of the Ian Sturrock Memorial Pipe Band of Birmingham, Alabama, formed in 2008 from the membership of the Birmingham-based award-winning Heritage Pipes & Drums pipe band. Since 2001, Ryan led Heritage Pipes & Drums to much success, from regional contest awards to headlining Birmingham's three-day downtown music festival City Stages.

Under his direction, the Ian Sturrock Memorial Pipe Band is sponsored by two of the largest Scottish-enthusiast organizations in the state, the St. Andrews Society of the Middle South and the Caledonian Society of Alabama, of which Ryan is a member on the Board of Directors.

The Ian Sturrock Memorial Pipe Band is in a collaborative partnership with the Duncan McCall Pipe Band of Pensacola, Florida, orchestrated by Ryan and long-time friend and fellow piper Pipe Major Steve Bicknell. Additionally, Ryan competes on the West Coast with the Bushmills Irish Pipers Pipe Band of San Francisco's Grade 3 band.

Ryan is arguably the state's most prolific piper, inspiring a feature article in Birmingham-based Portico Magazine's July 2008 edition. He has also appeared in the New York Times and can be heard piping in a local television advertisement for the Ross Bridge Golf Resort. He is also featured on albums with professional recording artist Jeff Sauceda and Celtic Harpist Cynthia Lynn Douglass.

Ryan is an avid composer and arranger of bagpipe music, and his compositions have garnered praise and favor from several well-known pipers such as Bruce Gandy, Adrian Melvin and Jori Chisholm. Ryan intends to publish these tunes as well as many others in his very first book of compositions, available soon in the Online Store.

In February of 2009, Ryan will have the honor of sharing the stage with Paddy Moloney and The Chieftains. He will accompany The Chieftains as a soloist and with the Ian Sturrock Memorial Pipe Band for three different songs during the performance. Using his superior skills for transcription, Ryan has also arranged music for the concert used nationally by other pipe bands.

Ryan is a first-class instructor, operating his own store-front in the 90s geared towards bagpipe instruction. He cultivated a market from a virtually nonexistent circle to a sizable local piping community supporting Alabama's local pipers and pipe bands. Ryan has been a motivating force for the interest in piping in Birmingham and surrounding areas, instructing many of the state's pipers. Now, using Internet technology such as MP3s and YouTube, Ryan is offering virtual bagpipe lessons for students unable to travel for instruction. He is currently working on his furst tutorial manual for learning the bagpipes.

Ryan is the consummate entertainer and a talented multi-instrumentalist, also performing on the mouth-blown and bellows-blown smallpipes, guitar, pennywhistle, and Egyptian tabla. Ryan has also been recognized by the Alabama Celtic Association, receiving an ACA Honors Award in recognition of his commitment to the Celtic cultural arts in Alabama.