Fifty-percent Scottish and 100-percent enamored with the tradition of pipes and drumming, Alice Ohlinger will join the Chicago Highlanders Pipes and Drums to present a concert of music and culture Aug. 13 in Grayslake.
Sponsored by the Grayslake Heritage Museum, the concert will also include some education on the culture of the military-style band using bagpipes and drums from war times, said Ohlinger, who manages the band and has played the bagpipes for 20 years.
“We’ll talk about why we do some of the things we do,” she said. “Most people see the band for 30 seconds as they walk by in a parade.” At the concert, they’ll hear and learn more, she said, adding those who want an opportunity to learn to play the pipes can talk to band members after the concert. Drum and piper lessons are free.
The Highlanders band was created in 1921 and is one of the longest, continuously running pipe bands in the United States, Ohlinger said. “We’re a military-style band in the tradition of the Scottish regiment.”
The group has won competitions and performed with a contingent of 10,000 pipers and drummers in Scotland in 2000.
The group includes a bass drummers, snare drummers and tenor drummers.
“The tenor drummers are the ones who do the flourishing with their mallets,” Ohlinger said. “They’ll spin their mallets over the heads. It’s the Scottish tradition.”
The band performs at parades throughout Chicago and the suburbs, and are especially busy in July, she said. Smaller groups of the band perform for other events, including the Grayslake concert.
“In Grayslake, we’ll go through all of our sets, and because it’s through the historical society, we’ll give a little background into the tunes that we play,” said Ohlinger, who is a dean at Huntley High School when not practicing her bagpipes.
For example, they’ll perform a piece called “Highland Laddie” that was played during World War II, she said.
On D-Day, a piper was told he should not go into battle, even though that was the Scottish tradition, she said.
He went anyway “and through all of the chaos he came out completely unscathed.”
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Ohlinger said she’s stayed in the band for more than two decades because she loves the sound of the music and the way the drummers and pipers work together. “I’ve always loved the sound of the pipes — and to be with the band, you’re part of a centuries-old tradition.”
“I think there’s a mystique to the bagpipes. They create a very unique sound. And in my experience, it’s been a very easy means of building bridges. It enables you to have conversations with people who probably wouldn’t have otherwise.”
People want to know how the bagpipes work, what’s worn underneath the kilt — and those who play other instruments bond with the bagpipers and drummers, she said.
“If you love the sound of the pipes, if you have an interest in the Scottish culture, if you have an interest in learning how to play, you should come to the concert,” she said. “We are always taking on new students and giving free lessons.”
“The beauty of it is you don’t start with a set of bagpipes. You start with a practice chanter and learn the fingerings that are the same on the pipes. Once you get the finger work down — you’re ready to buy a set of pipes.” A practice chanter resembles a recorder with reeds.
The band meets 7 to 10 p.m. Thursdays at Bethel Lutheran Church in Palatine, and dedicates the first half-hour to teaching students about playing the pipes and the drums.
Sheryl DeVore is a freelance writer.
The Chicago Highlanders Pipes and Drums
When: 7 p.m. Aug. 13
Where: Centennial Park, Whitney and Center streets, Grayslake
Admission: Free
Information: 847-223-8515; villageofgrayslake.com/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=716