Mearingstone is a Vancouver-based ensemble of five pipers, which plays new works for Scottish highland bagpipes, often augmented by other instruments such as Japanese taiko and shakuhachi, Indian tabla, bass clarinet, or pipe band percussion (snare, tenor and bass drums). The ensemble concocts an intense, mesmerizing, formally intricate music, a world music analogue of the Philip Glass Ensemble or Bang On a Can's explorations of musical density, variation, time, and ecstasy. Within the apparently restricted expressive range of the bagpipes they bring forth a wide variety of moods, the results of a passionate response to the unrealized potential of a deep tradition.
Mearingstone was formed in 1988 to perform Michael O'Neill's work 'Ur Og and Aji' in Vancouver New Music's New Music/Folk Music concert. A recording of the work was released on the CD Tree Line: Music from Canada and Japan (CBC Records). In 2000, Mearingstone produced Katadrone, a three-way collaboration with the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band and Uzume Taiko. This concert blended three traditions: Western classical New Music, Scottish highland piping and Japanese taiko. They continue to stir up the traditions, blending such elements as minimalism, compound rhythms, African percussion, and Indonesian gamelan.
Mearingstone is the core ensemble on Michael O'Neill's new CD Ontophony released in the fall 2006 on Songlines Recordings. The recording also features members of Uzume Taiko and the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band. Mearingstone members are Andrew Bonar, Andrew Douglas, Andrew Hayes, Sylvia DeTar, and Michael O'Neill.
Recordings
Ontophony (2006, Songlines Recordings)
Tree Line: Music from Canada and Japan (1997, CBC Recordings)
Diane Kadota Arts Management
Mailing Address: 425 Carrall Street, Suite 310, Vancouver, BC Canada V6B 6E3
Courier Address: 23 West Pender, Suite 310, Vancouver, BC Canada V6B 1R3
Tel: 604-683-8240 Fax: 604-683-7911
E-mail: diane@dkam.ca
www.dkam.ca
Mearingstone Bios
Andrew Bonar (Highland pipes) has been playing the pipes since the age of seven. He has been a member of the World Champion Simon Fraser University Pipe Band since 1980 and is a former member of the 78th Fraser Highlanders Pipe Band of Toronto. With these two pipe bands Andrew has competed at fifteen World Championships in Scotland. As an individual competitor Andrew has won many awards including two North American Championships and the MacCrimmon Cairn for Piobaireachd at the BC Pipers’ Annual Gathering.
A number of Andrew's compositions have been featured on recordings by the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band and were performed by the band in its winning concerts in 1995 and 1999. He has also had the honour of performing his own compositions at Carnegie Hall in New York and at the Sidney Opera House in Australia. His musical arrangements for the SFU Pipe Band are known internationally for their effectiveness and originality. Andrew is also a teacher of the bagpipes as well as a recognized judge of many competitions throughout North America.
Sylvia DeTar (Highland pipes) was born in Salt Lake City, Utah and moved to British Columbia in 2003 to study music and environmental geography at SFU. She initially learned to play the great highland bagpipes from Pipe Major Dennis McMaster and has since studied under Donald Lindsay, Bentley Wall, Adrian Melvin, Jack Lee and David Hilder. Sylvia is currently an instructor and performer in the Robert Malcolm Memorial Pipe Band.
Andrew Douglas (Highland pipes) is originally from upstate New York. He currently lives in Vancouver and is studying music composition at Simon Fraser University. As a piper, he is a member of the world-renowned Simon Fraser University pipe band and also competes in solo events. His primary focus in piping is in its integration with other instruments and piobaireachd, the ancient music of the bagpipe. Outside of piping music, Andrew enjoys minimalist music and it is with this in mind that he finds joy in performing Michael's compositions.
Andrew J. Hayes (Highland pipes) is a piper based in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. It was the distinctive sound of the pipes and a trip to the highlands that hooked him at an early age. After graduating college he joined the highly competitive Simon Fraser University Pipe Band out of Burnaby, BC. Andrew enjoys playing in bands and solo, at one point spending a summer in Glasgow supporting himself as a street busker. Although he only dabbles in other instruments, he enjoys all inspired forms of music.
Michael O’Neill (Highland pipes) is a composer/performer originally from the Shaganappi Escarpment area near the south bank of the Bow River in Calgary, Alberta. Following studies in music composition in Calgary, he studied with Gilles Tremblay in Montréal and Martin Bartlett, Rudolf Komorous and Barry Truax in Vancouver. He has written works for Vancouver’s Gamelan Madu Sari, Uzume Taiko, Silk Road Music, bass clarinetist Lori Freedman, Winnipeg’s Stirling Pipe Band, poet Sheri-D Wilson, Simon Fraser University Pipe Band, Toronto’s Evergreen Club Contemporary Gamelan, Karen Jamieson Dance Co., Maja Gender Ensemble and Mearingstone, his own ‘New Music’ bagpipe ensemble. Areas of collaboration include performance poetry, dance, mime and ventriloquism.
Moving to Vancouver in 1982, he began composing a series of works for bagpipes the most recent of which are: Jedaya, commissioned by the SFU Pipe Band; Metaforest and Field for the Evergreen Club Gamelan and harmonically adapted bagpipes; and Luffness, a collaboratively composed work for Uzume Taiko and the Mearingstone Pipe Band. He was awarded a Canada Council Specialized Music Sound Recording Grant (2002) to produce a CD of his works for bagpipes.
Michael has been active in the gamelan scene in Vancouver since 1986. He is a founding member of the Vancouver Community Gamelan Society and has played in its two performing groups - Gamelan Madu Sari and Gamelan Alligator Joy. His work Lessons of the Garden is included on Gamelan Madu Sari's recently released CD New Nectar. As well, he has studied Balinese gender wayang (shadow puppet ensemble) with Bali's leading teachers Pak Made Gerindem, I Agus Partha and I Nyoman Wenten and performs with Maja Gender, a gender wayang quartet which specializes in new music.
Guest Artists Bios:
Bonnie Soon (taiko drums, percussion) is an artist with an active history in many aspects of the art world. She began her performing career as a professional dancer, touring with numerous companies including the Paula Ross Modern Dance Company, Kokoro Dance and Snake in the Grass Moving Theatre. Bonnie has professional credits in stage management and has worked in all aspects of media production from graphic design to video production. In 1991, she joined Uzume Taiko to become a core drummer, touring regularly nationally and internationally.
Bonnie studied taiko drumming with John Greenaway, Eileen Kage and Leslie Komori in Vancouver and in workshops with members of Kodo, Seiichi Tanaka and Tiffany Tamarabuchi. She studied hand drumming at the SFU World Music Percussion Intensive with Sal Ferreras, Glen Velez, Trichy Sankaran and Modesto Amegago.
Bonnie has been an artistic educator in Vancouver through the Artist-in-Residence program and has mentored World Music students at the BC Festival of the Arts. She has led taiko drum workshops for BC Music Educators, BC Recreation & Parks staff, International Baccalaureate students, World Music Youth Summer camps, the Ailanthus Achievement Centre and at regional North American Taiko Gatherings. Bonnie builds and repairs taiko drums and works on innovative designs to make taiko equipment more accessible to the public.
Boyd Seiichi Grealy (taiko drums, percussion) is a native of Victoria. He is a classically trained percussionist with a degree in music from the University of Victoria. He has performed with the Victoria Symphony and was the principal percussionist for the Okanagan Symphony for three years. He has also been a member of the Ceremonial Guard in Ottawa and the Pacific Militia Arts Band in Vancouver. In addition to his work with Uzume Taiko, he teaches percussion at Stratford Hall. He joined Uzume Taiko in 1991.
Originally from Victoria, Jason Overy (taiko drums, percussion) moved to Vancouver after completing a Bachelor's degree in performance at the University of Victoria. Since then he has performed, toured and recorded, playing both drum set and percussion, with a variety of local and international acts in a wide range of styles. Jason also composes music for theatre and modern dance. He received a Jessie award for music composition and performance for the TJ Dawe play entitled Tired Cliches. Jason joined Uzume Taiko in 2000.
Born in Burnaby, Naomi Kajiwara (taiko drums, percussion) began training with Uzume Taiko in 2000 and has been performing with the group since 2003. A UBC graduate in Human Kinetics, she also has more than 25 years of training and performing experience in jazz, tap, hip hop, Hawaiian and Polynesian dance. Naomi currently teaches taiko music and jazz, tap and hip hop dance to children and adults.
Alcvin Ramos (shakuhachi, didgeridoo) was born in Atsugi City, Kanagawa-ken, Japan. At age 6 he moved to Texas then to California where he received most of his education up to university. His first instruments were piano, trumpet and guitar. While in high school, he first heard the sound of a Japanese bamboo flute in a film by Kurosawa Akira called Ran (music by Takemitsu Toru). It inspired him to learn and research the Japanese bamboo flutes. At a library, he came across a shakuhachi recording made by Yamaguchi Goro, a national living treasure at the time. Immediately he knew this was his instrument. In 1992, he went to Japan to start his shakuhachi training. He first studied at Tozan ryu, then switched to Kinko ryu. At the International Shakuhachi festival in Okayama-ken in 1994 he first heard the shakuhachi of Yokoyama Katsuya and was moved. In the years to follow Alcvin concentrated on the playing styles of Yokoyama Katsuya and his teacher, Watazumi-do. In 1996 he moved to Vancouver, where he befriended shakuhachi master Takeo Yamashiro who became his mentor and close friend. He returned to Japan for two years to deepen his studies with Katsuya Yokoyama, Kaoru Kakizakai, Teruo Furuya, and Atsuya Okuda. In 2001, he received his Shihan (master) license from Yokoyama Katsuya, one of the few Westerners to be granted this honour. In October 2001, Alcvin returned to Vancouver, Canada to teach and perform shakuhachi and to engage in the Bamboo-In, Canada's first Shakuhachi Centre. Alcvin maintains an active performance schedule between Canada, US, and Japan.