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Ryan Morrison, the Birmingham Bagpiper, is Alabama's ONLY fully Professional Ceremonial Bagpiper available for weddings, funerals, birthdays, anniversaries, and all other special events anywhere in the state of Alabama and throughout the Southeast. Ryan is by far the state's most prolific Piper and he is featured constantly in newspapers and telelvision both locally, regionally, and nationally.
With nearly fifteen years of experience, Ryan is an accomplished award-winning solo bagpipe competitor, a competing member of the Duncan McCall Pipe Band of Pensacola, Florida and the Bushmills Irish Pipers Pipe Band of San Francisco and the Pipe Major and Director of the Birmingham-based award-winning bagpipe band and City Stages headliner Heritage Pipes & Drums.
Under his direction, Heritage Pipes & Drums 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 and on the Board of Directors. He has led Heritage Pipes & Drums at ceremonial events for state and foreign dignitaries, and has even performed along with several members of Heritage Pipes & Drums as an opening act for Rod Stewart!
In 2006, Ryan was recruited for the Bushmills Irish Pipers Pipe Band of San Francisco's Grade 3 band on his very first visit and he is now a competing member as well as the band's official East Coast Instructor and Recruiter. He has officially entered Heritage Pipes & Drums into a mentoring partnership with Bushmills San Francisco Irish Pipers, bringing his knowledge and skill home to his pipe band and offering his students the opportunity for travel and competition around the country. In 2009, Ryan will be the first native-Alabamian to attend the All Ireland Championships as well as the Munster Provincial Championships in the Republic of Ireland.
Ryan is also the primary instructor for the first ever school-sponsored piping program in the state of Alabama at the Evangel Classical Christian School in Alabaster. Ryan teaches from ages ten to fourteen not only the bagpipes but snare drum as well, and he intends to grow their band into a performance-ready unit by 2009.
Ryan was featured in an HBO documentary about the deadly MacDonald Chapel tornado of 1998 and can be heard piping in a local television advertisement for the Ross Bridge Golf Resort recorded by Airwave Recording Studios. He is also featured on albums with professional recording artist Jeff Sauceda and Celtic Harpist Cynthia Lynn Douglass.
Ryan received his initial tutelage from the late Dr. John Richardson and Pipe Major Emeritus Charles Smith of the Heritage Pipes & Drums of Birmingham, Alabama, both of whom were students of the late Pipe Major Ian Sturrock of the Royal Air Force, the first instructor for the Scottish Bagpipes in the state of Alabama.
From 1996 to 1999, Ryan was the owner and operator of The Town Piper located in Birmingham, Alabama, a retail business geared toward instruction of the Scottish Bagpipes. 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 also been recognized by the Alabama Celtic Association and awarded an ACA Honors Award in recognition of his commitment to the Celtic cultural arts in Alabama.
Ryan has been a motivating force for the interest in piping in Birmingham and surrounding areas, instructing many of Birmingham's local pipers. He is a dedicated instructor and is currently working on his furst tutorial manual for learning the bagpipes.
In addition to teaching and performing, Ryan is an accomplished composer of bagpipe music, having composed nearly a hundred tunes! He is currently working feverishly to complete his very first E-book of original compositions, available ONLY on this website!
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