Nicolas Brown

I play Irish traditional music on the whistle, flute, and uilleann pipes. I regularly play weddings, funerals, and everything in between. My instruments are suitable for indoor venues and require me to sit to play.

I can also put together duos, trios, and larger groups of Irish musicians as needed, with instruments including fiddle, harp, piano, flute, banjo, guitar and more.

Note: I do not play the highland pipes - if you're looking for someone to walk in with loud bagpipes wearing a kilt, then unfortunately I'm not the person you're looking for.

”An excellent piper who incorporates smart, subtle touches in his ornamentation and regulator work to yield a smooth, gentlemanly style.”
— The Irish Echo

Nicolas Brown was born in Illinois and raised in Ontario, and first started playing Irish music when he was in his late teens. A friend lent him a practice set of uilleann pipes, with which he proceeded to torture his extremely patient and understanding parents. Norman Stiff (a student of Dublin born Chris Langan) started teaching him and gave him two CDs: one of Willie Clancy and one of Seamus Ennis. Nicolas proceeded to listen to these two albums on repeat for the next year. Eventually, he got his own set of pipes, a flute, and some more recordings, and set out on his journey down the Irish music rabbit hole.

In the years since he first picked up a tin whistle at the Fergus Highland Games, Nicolas has not only become a proficient musician and sought-after music teacher; he has also developed a vast knowledge of the history of Irish music, old musicians, tune origins, Irish music in America, and much more.​

Nicolas has performed, taught, and given workshops at venues, festivals, and tionóil throughout Canada and the United States. In 2020, during the isolation of the pandemic, he released his solo album Good Enough Music For Them Who Love It. The album consists of music from the late 1700s, played on an antique set of Irish or Union pipes made at the same time. Besides this antique set he plays a Joe Kennedy flat pitch “B” set of union pipes, a Koehler & Quinn concert pitch “D” set of uilleann pipes, and John Gallagher flutes in F, D, and B, the latter of which is the first modern eight-keyed B flute, as far as he’s aware.

For acoustic performances, I only require an armless chair, out of the elements.

For anywhere amplification is required, I require two microphones for the uilleann pipes (one for the chanter, one for the drones) and a separate third microphone for flute and whistle, as well as talking.