 |
PIPE
MAJOR JAY SALTER |
 |
- Experienced,
full-time musician who has
performed for hundreds of
wedding ceremonies,
receptions, parties, and
memorial services.
- One
of a select handful of
pipers in the United States
who makes his living
performing and teaching the
pipes.
- Award-winning
competitor in many piping
contests.
- Winner
of the Calabash Entertainer
of the Year award for Santa
Cruz, which acknowledges his
work performing and teaching
in this ethnic music-rich
community.
- Subject
of a UCLA PhD
ethnomusicological
dissertation by Gina Fatone
on his traditional and
distinctive technique of
using the ancient
onomatopoetic sol fa system
of Canntaireachd to teach
the pipes: Making Hands
Sing: Vocal-to-Motor
Transfer of Melody Within
Classical Scottish
Highland Bagpiping...,
2002.
- Founder
and Pipe Major of the Santa
Cruz Pipes and Drums. This
award-winning band plays at
events throughout the Bay
Area, and is noted for its
innovative and musical
arrangements. It was founded
by Jay in 1992 in order to
provide a broader musical
context for his students,
young and old, to perform
and share their music in,
and to foster a sense of
traditional musical
community. Most of the
pipers are students of
Jay’s.
- Founder
and director of the Bagpipe
and Celtic music program at
Santa Cruz High School, one
of the few programs of its
like in the United States,
in which the pipes are
taught as an instrument in
their own right, along with
their repertoire and
historical tradition.
- Instructor
in the Hamish Moore school
of Cauld Wind Piping, Santa
Rosa, teaching participants
the technique and repertoire
for the Scottish Small
Pipes.
- Widely
acknowledged as an
exceptional and talented
teacher, Jay has taught
numerous people the pipes
and the low whistle over the
decades, many of whom have
gone on to become fine
performers in their own
right. Many of his students
are award-winning
competitors.
- Recipient
of a teaching certificate
from the College of Piping,
Glasgow, Scotland.
- Long-time
student of the great
gold-medalist, performer,
and piobaireachd scholar
James McColl, and recipient
of many piobaireachds and
tunes from his inexhaustible
well of knowledge.
- Recipient
of piobaireachds from such
teachers as gold-medalists
Pipe-Major Donald Shaw
Ramsey and Andrew Wright.
- Student
of legendary Pipe-Major
James Thompson of Downey.
Also piped in Jimmy’s Grade
I pipe band, The Pipe Band.
- Organizer
of workshops and house
concerts for such leading
and innovative pipers and
groups as James McColl,
Hamish Moore, Anna Murray,
Gordon Mooney, Rory
Campbell, Paddy Keenan, Finn
Moore, Fred Morrison, Will
Woodson, and Wind Bag.
- Co-founder
of the Greater Monterey Bay
Celtic Society in 1989 in
order to provide a society
dedicated to bringing the
finest of world celtic music
artists to Santa Cruz and
Monterey counties.
- As
licensed minister of the
Universal Life Church, Jay
also occasionally acts as
officiant at the weddings and
memorial services he pipes
for.
- Passionate
and long-time researcher of
the history and cultural
context of the Pipes.
- As
a professional sound
recordist of natural
environments, with hundreds
of hours of recordings, and
commissioned work in museums
and park visitor centers,
Jay is keenly appreciative
of the effects of sound in
different places.
- In
his capacity of recording
sound in Canyonlands
National Park for many
years, Jay is the subject of
a chapter of a book about
natural sound, One
Square Inch of Silence,
written by the well-known
nature sound recordist,
Gordon Hempton, and
published by Simon and
Schuster, 2009.
- Published
poet active with readings.
- MA
in poetry from San Francisco
State University.
|
©2016 Jay Salter
|
|
