June 10, 2008
Speaker: George Balderose, Executive Director of the Balmoral School of Piping and Drumming
From City Paper article December 6, 2007 “Pipe Dreams”
“But as it turned out, Pittsburgh, too, had a lengthy bagpiping history — at least for an American city. According to Balderose, who is researching the subject, the first bagpipe society in the U.S. was founded here in 1901. The corporate giant Westinghouse had a pipe band prior to World War II, and Donora High School boasted a band at one time. The first documented bagpiper in Pittsburgh, Balderose says, was Andrew Carnegie’s personal piper, Angus MacPherson, “a very prestigious piper.”
George’s website: “Pittsburgh Piper”
A New York Times reviewer described George as having a “virtuoso’s gift” and in the words of another he is a “virtuosic piper.”
Squirrel Hill Historical Society 