Talk to the Costellos about Brian’s bagpipe playing, and they will tell you what day it is.
“Day 51,” Brian Costello said Wednesday from his Elmhurst home, referring to how long he has been playing the bagpipes in his yard each evening during the coronavirus shutdown.
Neighbors and strangers gather, a safe distance apart, to listen.
“It gives you a little bit of joy,” said Christine Falkenberg, who walks over from her house to better hear the music.
Other people line up on the Illinois Prairie Path, which borders Costello’s backyard.
Brian Costello’s wife Katy started it all, both Brian’s mastery of the bagpipes and the evening serenades.
She had noted his keen appreciation for music and thought he had missed his calling by not being in the music industry. So for his 30th birthday, she offered to pay for music lessons for the instrument of his choice. To her surprise, he said he always wanted to learn to play the bagpipes.
So she pulled out the Yellow Pages and found the Irish Heritage Center in Chicago, where the couple were living at the time. He started lessons and has been playing ever since.
“He took it really seriously and took it to heart,” Katy Costello said.
He practiced on his chanter, a small pipe like a recorder, in the car on his way to work as a mortgage broker.
“We had little kids at the time, so it was hard to practice at home,” Brian, 54, said. Eventually, he joined the Shannon Rovers Irish Pipe Band and played with the group in the Dublin St. Patrick’s Day Parade in 2004.
The Shannon Rovers were scheduled to play again in the 2020 parade, and Brian was going with about a dozen “guy” friends and family members, including his two sons, Declan and Keegan, who were turning 21 on March 18.
Instead the trip, the parade and other St. Patrick’s Festival events in Dublin were canceled March 12 because of the pandemic. Which is why, Brian said, “I was sitting on my couch pouting like a 5-year-old on St. Patrick’s Day.”
Seeing him, his wife suggested, “Why don’t you get out on the path and play for the neighbors.”
He grabbed his bagpipes, went outside and played.
“In my head, I was in Dublin, playing on O’Connell Street in front of the post office,” he said.
“When I came in, my wife said, ‘My phone is blowing up. You have to do this every night.'”
So he resolved to play each evening as long as the shelter-in-place order was in effect, and to wear his Celtic finery — one of his kilts, his cap, wool socks and buckles.
He had learned and rehearsed a lot of songs for the Dublin trip, so his repertoire was strong.
“I try to play a different set each night to practice and to keep it fresh for the other people.”
“Then they extended it,” Costello said, referring to the stay-at-home order. So he continued.
“One day, it was pouring rain, so I put up a tent.”
“I don’t like to quit on things,” he explained. “I’m just hoping it doesn’t go into the winter. I don’t want to be playing when it is snowing again.”
He also has been posting videos of his playing on Facebook.
“I have people from Germany and Iceland watching,” as well as friends on the West Coast, Costello said.
On May 4, he played the “Star Wars” theme as a nod to “May the force/forth be with you.”
On Cinco de Mayo, he played a riff from “La Cucaracha.”
Almost every night, he plays “Amazing Grace,” Danny Boy” as a tribute to his late father, and “When Irish Eyes are Smiling” for his late mother.
“She sang that at every party,” Costello said.
He plays non-stop for about 10 minutes, starting at sunset.
To close, he plays, “You’re a Grand Old Flag,” and his audience claps along.
“I’m doing it for the people who have passed away from the coronavirus,” Costello said.
The Geiger family, who walks over often to listen, and others appreciate the gesture and seeing people come together.
“It’s a little thing to do, but it means a lot to people,” Falkenberg said.
