Residency activities can be done with Road to the Isles as an ensemble or with its individual members, and include school concerts, workshops, and beginner to master classes.

The most usual residency includes one or two school concerts with one or more musicians and the dancers, followed by an evening concert. School concerts are normally with children in grades K-8. The dancers perform a wide variety of championship-quality dances and give the students information about their origin and the symbolism of the steps and dance patterns, as well as the costumes worn.

George Balderose plays several different types of bagpipes, some mouth-blown and some bellows-blown, some loud and some soft. His usual residency activity consists of performing with the dancers, playing and explaining the dances and the bagpipes in their geographical and historical context. For school shows he also describes the various parts that comprise a bagpipe, demonstrates how bagpipes are tuned, and shows how different bagpipes produce different sounds in pitch, volume, and timbre. For elementary school performances, George usually involves students by inviting them to sing familiar children's songs to smallpipe accompaniment. Master classes usually involve a presentation of the fundamentals of piping technique, as well as playing the pipes with other instruments. Demonstrations of the traditional pipe music repertoire, including piobaireachd, or classical pipe music, are also usually included in master classes.

Richard Hughes sings a wide variety of Scottish and Irish songs in dialect, illustrating cultural and historical differences and similarities between the Irish and the Scottish people. Topics include ballads, sea shanties, humorous songs, love songs, songs of sheep-shearing, railroads, and more. He also shows how to accompany these songs on guitar. Additionally, Richard can give beginner to master class workshops on the Irish flute and tinwhistle.

Melinda Crawford plays a wide variety of Scottish music on the fiddle, and has an intimate understanding of the classical violin tradition as well. Her workshops bridge the gap between folk music and classical music, demonstrating the similarities and differences of these musical styles to students of folk or classical music. She can also teach accompaniment to folksong on the fiddle, as well as the requirements for playing fiddle for traditional dancers.

Program Support Materials

The following materials are available for download in .pdf format. A link to the free Adobe Reader can be found below this section.

Road to the Isles Residency Activities

The Wind that Shakes the Barley - School Performance Repertoire

The Wind that Shakes the Barley - A Teaching supplement from Celtic Fest, Inc.

Learn about Scottish and Irish Bagpipes and their traditional Music with the artist George Balderose.

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This project is partially supported by a grant from Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour, a program developed and funded by the Vira I. Heinz Endowment; the William Penn Foundation; the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency; and the Pew Charitable Trusts; and administered by the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation.

Funding for concert performances and workshops by Road to the Isles is available to non-profit presenters throughout the Mid-Atlantic region. For more information contact PennPat at (www.pennpat.org) (215)496-9424, or Music Tree at () (412) 323-2707.