St John’s Pipers of Ocean Springs

PLEASE NOTE: It’s not personal if we decline your event, or are unable to coordinate to provide a piper. Just because you want to hire a piper does not mean we can provide one every time. Most of us are older and travel distance is often the most cited reason for not accepting an engagement. We need some time to ask members if they are available, too - we all are busy with life, and despite the interest in piping as a rule, it can be very difficult to rearrange a schedule for a shot-notice event.

The St John’s Pipers perform for audiences ranging from Elementary School music classes to ultra formal private cocktail events. We have performed at local festivals in both individual and ensemble forums. The Colonel is skilled and experienced at advising planners on uses of the bagpipe in their ceremonies, and has assisted in funeral and wedding planning through consultation before the event and performing during it. He is flexible and compassionate, and all of his pipers will dress well for the occasion.

Most good bagpipers can play for 45 minutes with breaks. Playing the bagpipes requires lots of energy, stamina, and air. If a client wants a piper to play for an extended period of time, usually we will play straight for ten to fifteen minutes, take a three to five minute break to catch our breath, rest the bagpipes and drink some water, and continue this cycle until we have played for the requested amount of time.

Part of hiring a bagpiper is having the opportunity to see a typical Scottish outfit. Unless you request something different, pipers will dress in a traditional kilt outfit including a kilt, belt, sporran, knee high socks, flashes, ghillie brogues, sgian dubh, and some combination of formal vest and jacket.

The bagpipes are very loud because they were designed to be heard over the heat of battle. However, a bagpiper can perform indoors when the space is large enough for the sound to spread out. Many churches have high ceilings and spacious rooms that are perfect for a bagpiper. Conversely, when the room is small and there are lots of people packed inside, the piper may opt to play outside of the room instead. Usually we open the doors when we are playing outside so that the sound of the bagpipes may reach all guests without causing undue distress.

For the last ten years, a small group of bagpipers has been meeting, practicing and playing at the St John’s Episcopal Church in Ocean Springs. All of us are accomplished musicians. Several of us are veterans of police, fire and military services of Canada, New Zealand and the USA, so the bagpipe calls to all of us. It is this core of bagpipers that has begun to accept general piping performance bookings.

The current Pipe Sergeant of the St. John’s Pipers, COL. (Dr.) Bill “Doc” Christmas a.k.a. “The Colonel”, our full-time piper, is a retired highly decorated U.S. Army veteran. Originally born in New Zealand, he was a member of the NZ Army and learned to play the bagpipe with the NZ Scottish Regiment. He began teaching the bagpipe in 1998 while on active duty in the US military, and has played for numerous US military ceremonies and leaders all over the world as an on-call member of the US Air Force Pipe Band. He assumed the role of Pipe Major of the Mineral Area Police Pipes and Drums as instructor and director in 2000 after he left active duty.

He was appointed Pipe Sergeant for the Grade 3 John Ford Pipe Band in St. Louis and competed with the Grade 1 Invera’an Pipe Band as a piper under P/M COL. (Dr.) Martin Docherty. The Colonel was both a student and an instructor at the North American Academy of Piping and Drumming for several years, where he was instructed by P/M Sandy Jones, P/M Gordon Warburton, P/M Ed Neigh, P/M Bill Caudill and P/M Greg Abbott. Both P/M Jones and P/M Abbott have taught at schools and workshops directed, taught and organized by the Colonel.

Before his retirement, the Colonel competed at national competitions in grades 4 and 3. He is currently rated by the EUSPBA at Senior Grade 4. His favorite phrase is “well, it could be worse …” The Colonel teaches selected individual students privately in the Scottish style of Canntaireachd. As with all our pipers, he accepts bookings for private performances.

The Colonel is the booking manager for each and all of the St. John’s Pipers. He will assess and assign pipers for your special event and ensure you receive the best service for your money.

Please Note: Because of a few bad actors recently, we have changed our booking policies. We charge the full fee up front instead of a deposit, as several of our members weren’t paid after performing for events last year, or turned up in full garb to find no event occurring. While that might be amusing to a certain element of society, the wasted time and financial inconvenience to our members was not appreciated. As a result, we have changed our policy to lessen the impact on our members, and require payment in full before the event. If there are truly mitigating reasons for cancellations without notice, a direct negotiation with the client for a PARTIAL refund will be allowed. We apologize for any inconvenience this policy causes, but we feel this is only fair to all parties.

It is very helpful if you can provide the following for your bagpiper -
Somewhere private and secure to dress (if the piper doesn’t arrive in full dress)
Somewhere for the piper to tune the bagpipes - yes, they can be tuned!
Bottles of water - may be offered as needed
A preview of the ceremony with written guidelines on when and where to perform. This may also be discussed in advance if there is a rehearsal or walkthrough planned. Please let us know if this is your preference so we can be there on time to receive instruction.