Members

Grade 3 Band

Pipers

Mike Breidenbach is the Director of Piping at Macalester College and is the Pipe Major of their Grade 3 and grade 5 competition bands. He has been a full time bagpipe teacher and performer since 1999. He began learning at Macalester College in 1992 under the tuition of Andrew Hoag. Later he studied with Donald Lindsay, Jim MacGillivray, and the late Lindsay Kirkwood.

In 1997 and 1998 he was awarded Champion Supreme by the Midwest Pipe Band Association in Grade 2 as a soloist.

Mike has tunes published in The Winnipeg Collection Volume 2, Boney Music Volume 1, and Gail Brown’s Instruction Book.

Pipe Band Experience:

Macalester College Grade 3, 4, 5 1993-present

Kansas City St Andrews Society Pipe Band Grade 2 2002-2005

City Of Chicago Pipe Band Grade 1 2011

Notable Performances:

World Premiere of Pulitzer Prize winning Opera “Silent Night”

Minnesota Orchestra

Rochester Symphony

Minneapolis Pops Orchestra

The Chieftains

Brian Adams

The Red Hot Chilli Pipers

The Piano Guys

Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas

Pipe Sergeant Andrew Lewis

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Meridith Richmond

I started piping while a student at Macalester in 2009 under the instruction of Mike Breidenbach, and joined the Macalester Pipe Band in 2010. I continue to take lessons from Mike and play in the Macalester band. I’ve won scholarships from the Irish Music and Dance Association in Saint Paul, MN to attend the Balmoral School Of Piping and Drumming (St. Paul, MN) and the Invermark School of Piping and Drumming (Catskill Mtns, NY). I was also able to attend Celtic Arts Foundation’s Winter School (Seattle, WA) with generous support from the Celtic Arts Foundation. At these bagpiping camps I’ve received instruction from piping greats including Willie McCallum, Jack Lee, Donald Lindsay, Angus MacColl, Stuart Liddell, Callum Beaumont, Roddy MacLeod, Brian Donaldson, Bruce Gandy, and Fred Morrison. Mynotable awards include winning the 2018 James W. Aiken Memorial Prize (Overall Winner Grade 2 Solo Piping) at the Caledonian Club of San Francisco Scottish Highland Games. One of my best bagpiping memories is winning the 2014 Grade 3 Medley competition with Macalester at the Caledonian Club of San Francisco Scottish Highland Games.

Rhys O'Higgins

Rhys O’Higgins is a piper from Madison, WI. He picked up the pipes in 2012 under the instruction of his father, and soon joined the Madison Pipes and Drums. In addition to competing with the band, he got involved in solos, rising through the ranks from Jr. Novice to Grade 1 over the next five years, and picking up numerous Champion Supreme titles and other awards along the way. In 2017 he joined the City of Chicago Pipe Band, and in 2020 became a member of Peel Regional Police Pipe Band out of Canada. Also in 2020, he enrolled in Macalester College, and became the “Pipe Band Manager” for, as well as a playing member of, the Macalester College Pipe Band. Over the course of his piping career he’s received instruction from his father, Kristopher O’Higgins, as well as from John Cairns and Micheal Breidenbach, and has also taught numerous students.

Zippa Curiskis

Zippa started pipe lessons at the age of 10 at Macalester with P/M Mike Breidenbach and Andrew Lewis. Now a member of Mac’s class of 2025, she has played with the pipe band since 2016. Her current teachers include Donald Lindsay in New York and Murray Henderson in Scotland. Zippa competes in Grade 1 solos, and in 2021 was invited to play in the Nicol-Brown and George Sherriff Invitational competitions. She also enjoys playing Scottish smallpipes and Irish whistle. Zippa is majoring in Geography and minoring in Music at Macalester.

Josh Steffen

I became interested in playing bagpipes when I was on a business trip to Edinburgh, Scotland. I saw a piper busking on the street outside the castle, and stood there to watch him play for 30 minutes or more. I was fascinated by the sound and told my wife when I got back that I wanted to learn to play. 3 years later, she remembered that I had said that and bought me the College of Piping Green Book and a practice chanter for my birthday in Nov. 2011. I was living in Mountain View, CA at the time, and began teaching myself from the book. I was making good progress, but as I was nearing the end of the G book, I decided to begin taking lessons with an instructor.

Shortly after purchasing my pipes, we moved back to Central IL and I quickly joined a local grade 5 band there called Celtic Cross Pipes and Drums. Here, I had my first competition experiences and really enjoyed them. I began solo competitions in 2015 in the Novice category. I began taking lessons from a great instructor, Ben Peterson, in 2016 and in 2017 I was competing in Grade 4 solos and won “Best Individual Piper -Grade 4” at the Alma, MI competition. In 2017 I was also very humbled and proud to be elected as Pipe Major of Celtic Cross Pipes and Drums. In 2018, Celtic Cross won Champion Supreme of the MWPBA.

In 2018 I also began playing with Chicago Celtic – Grade 3 with my instructor, Ben, as Pipe Major. This was a challenging and rewarding effort.

At the end of 2018 I moved to Southern CA and after a time joined Pasadena Scots, Grade 3, who had just recently come off a big win at the Worlds.

I was able to play with them in one contest in the 2019 season at Pleasanton CA. Shortly after, COVID struck and scuttled the 2020 season.

In late 2020, I moved back to the Midwest, this time to Minnesota, and joined with Macalester College Pipe Band.

I think my fondest moments in piping have come from seeing students who I have taught succeed. I have especially enjoyed watching my dad become interested in piping and become a crucial member of Celtic Cross Pipes and Drums. I really enjoyed my time playing in the band with him.

Mark Ryan

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Bob Lies

I started pipes as a teen after hearing Ron Wallace perform at the MN Renaissance Festival. In music-years, I am into my tenth measure in 4/4 time.

Macalester College Pipe Band was the first pipe band I played in. I was a student at Hamline University and Andrew Berthoff was the Mac student pipe major.

I have played in a number of pipe bands in the Midwest and was the pipe major of the Minnesota Pipes and Drums, now the Minnesota Police Pipe Band, from 1999-2003. I am back at my piping alma mater, the Macalester College Pipe Band.

The best things about playing bagpipes? Working hard together as a band to create music that can’t be made any other way; the excitement of performing, especially in venues like First Avenue, Orchestra Hall, the Excel Center, and the highland games; being invited into personal celebrations whether a birthday, a wedding, or a celebration of life; and being able to make the music that has captivated me from the moment I first heard it.

Adria Fernandez

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Ryan Behnke

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John Whyte

I started playing in London, Ontario at age 9. My parents and grandfather were all pipers; my sister and grandmother were highland dancers. It was kind of inevitable.

Band Experience

Strathroy Legion (Ontario – Gr 4-3) – ’89-’92

Strath James (Virginia, Gr 4) – ’93-’96

City of Washington (DC, Gr 2-1) – ’97-’04

Grade 1 solo piper

Competed at World Pipe Band Championships 7 times (Grades 4, 2, and 1)

1999 Grade 2 North American & World Champions (CoW)

1990 – Traveled to Scotland with my dad and grandfather as part of the Strathroy Legion Pipe Band. We placed 3rd at the Worlds in Grade 4 and won the RSPBA Diamond Jubilee contest the next day. This solidified my passion for pipe bands.

2001 & 2004 – Aside from winning Grade 2, playing in the Grade 1 final at the Worlds is my favorite competitive highlight. The atmosphere in and around that arena is incredible.

Instructors

John Cairns – London, Ont. (A great teacher I’m sure, but a bit intense when I was 9 years old)

Doug Bruce – London, Ont.

Jay Close – Williamsburg, VA

A whole bunch that probably shouldn’t go on the website, but here’s one for the Minnesota folks…

In the early 2000s City of Washington did a concert series with fiddler Bonnie Rideout, playing amazing venues like the Kennedy Center. One September we played a show in Green Bay, and us southern folks didn’t think to check the forecast. We wore shorts and sandals, and the overnight low was 35 degrees. I remember running from the bar to the hotel at 1 AM.

Justice Peterson

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Henry McCarthy

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Drummers

Drum Sergeant Hunter Gullickson

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Steve Sutherland

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Tony Todero

Tony Todero’s father Joe is a bagpiper, so Tony started participating in highland arts, including dance and tenor drumming, at a very early age. Tony’s formal drumming instruction began in 5th grade band class and continued through 9^th grade marching band and indoor drum corps, playing drum set and primarily snare. Upon moving to Minnesota for graduate school in 2003, desperately needing a musical outlet, he joined the Macalester College Pipe Band, playing in the snare line with the band on and off since then. He has enjoyed stints with a number of bands, including The Pipes and Drums of Bannockburn (grade 5), the Omaha Pipes & Drums (grade 4), Macalester (grade 3), and City of Chicago (grade 2). Tony is an avid competitor, and he most enjoys competing with the band and solo. His best solo feat was finishing second in grade 2 at Winter Storm, one of the premier drumming competitions in North America. Tony’s been fortunate to learn from and be influenced by several amazing highland drummers, including Steve Sutherland, Hunter Gullickson, John Fisher, and Doug Stronach.

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Grade 5 Band

Pipers

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Mike Householder started playing bagpipes in September 2020 and played with Macalester College Pipe Band for the first time in March 2022.

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I started taking lessons in 1978 from the then PM of the Omaha Pipes & Drums, Pam Klocksheim. I competed about a year later in the solos and band competition at the Colorado School of Mines. I stayed with the band for a number of years and then joined a quartet for a few years before rejoining OP&D. In 2007 we moved to San Diego where I joined the Cameron Highlanders of SD. We competed in all of the California games, as well as those in Phoenix and Las Vegas. With the Omaha band, aside from Scotland, we’ve competed in Minnesota, Arkansas, Kansas, and Missouri. Most recently I’ve joined the Macalester College Pipe Band under Mike’s leadership and competed last month in Chicago.

My wife and I moved to the Omaha area in 2016 and I rejoined the Omaha band for the third time. With the band we competed in Scotland at Bridge of Allen, North Berwick, and the Worlds in ‘04 and ‘17. We finished in the middle of the pack both times at the Worlds.

Aside from my original PM I’ve received tuition at camps in Oberlin and Milwaukee from Ken Eller, Reay McKay, John Cairns, Jake Watson, and Bruce Gandy.

My favorite memories, besides all of the competitions and the wonderful instructors and band mates I’ve had, performing at weddings, funerals, and on stage a few times, stewarding at Winter Storm and interacting with all the world class pipers and drummers there have been the highlights for me.

And interesting side story is that, after learning to play fairly well, I went to play for my parents. As I played my mother began to cry. I said “Ma I’m not that bad” to which she replied that my playing reminded her of her father’s playing the Italian version of bagpipes called zampogna to his sheep back in Italy. Later, when we visited her home town I made contact with a nearby piper who arranged for Italy’s premier zampogna player to put on a mini concert for my wife and me. It was awesome.

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I originally began bagpipe lessons in 1991-’92 under Pipe Major Andrew Hoag. After 12-18 months, I discontinued
lessons due to time constraints of work, family, military, and life in general. I returned to piping in 2017 under the
instruction of Pipe Major Mike Breidenbach.
In the spring of 2022, I joined the Macalester College Grade 5 Pipe Band.
Accomplishments:
– Competed in my first solo competition June 17, 2022, in Chicago at the age of 72 and placed 5 th out of 16 pipers
Favorite memories:
– First Band performance – 2022 Macalester College Graduation Ceremony
– First Solo and Grade 5 Band competition – 2022 Chicago Scottish Festival & Highland Games
– Friendships and camaraderie of Macalester College Grades 3 and 5 Band members

Danielle Freshwaters

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Kent Kaiser

After I finished my Ph.D. in 2009, I didn’t want to attend classes anymore, but I still wanted to keep on learning. As someone with some musical background, I decided I wanted to take up a new instrument–a solo instrument, unlike the euphonium of my youth. I debated between taking up harmonica, which would be great on a canoe trip (I’m an avid canoeist) and bagpipes. I went online and found that bagpipe lessons were readily available at Macalester so decided to go that direction. I took my first lesson in 2010. After a few months, I mentioned in my lesson that I felt I would have “arrived” when I could play “Amazin Grace,” and Mike whipped out the sheet music, and I played it right then on the chanter.

Favorite memories: “playing under the palm trees” at the Scottish Highland Gathering in Pleasanton, California; competing (and winning) in Winnipeg.

Mateo Horwath

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Christian Rummelhoff

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Dan Nicla

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