RYAN MACDONALD - Victoria, British Columbia

Ryan MacDonald returns for her third year on the HMA faculty.  Hailing from North Shore, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Ryan was fortunate to grow up in an area richly steeped in the Gaelic language and culture.

A piper since the age of 12, Ryan attended from a young age the Gaelic College of Celtic Arts and Crafts in St. Ann's, Nova Scotia.  At the College Ryan received instruction from Bob Worrall, Bruce Gandy and Michael Grey, among other influential teachers.  Not long after, she joined the Gaelic College Pipe Band, and was a member when they won the Grade 3 North American and World Pipe Band Championships.  During this time, under the tutelage of John Walsh, Ryan competed extensively throughout Canada, the United States and Scotland, winning the Atlantic Canada Pipe Band Association Championship Supreme in each amateur grade, the ACPBA Silver Medal Piobaireachd Challenge three times, the Nicol-Brown and George Sherriff Memorial Invitational Competitions, and each under-18 event she entered in Scotland, including events at Glenfinnan and Glenisla.  She also won a prize in the B Grade Strathspey and Reel in Oban.

Advancing to the professional ranks, she moved to Hamilton, Ontario, in 1996 to play with the Peel Regional Police Pipe Band under the leadership of Michael Grey, and remained a member of the band until 2000.  Some of Ryan's original compositions were selected for the band repertoire, and later published in the collections of Michael Grey and Ann Gray.

From 1993 to 2004 Ryan was a summer instructor at the Gaelic College, teaching both highland bagpipes and smallpipes.  Currently residing in Victoria, she assists with The Greater Victoria Police Pipe Band.  In 2005, she returned to Cape Breton for the Celtic Colours International Festival, where she played smallpipes on Hamish Moore's live recording by Greentrax Records, 'The Piper and The Maker' (yet to be released). For the past two years, she has been a student at the Western Academy of Photography, and now operates her own photography business in Victoria.

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This page last updated June 15, 2008