Mike Kotch performs his solo set of Elisia's Fancy, George the Beagle, Good Drying, Vanessa's Fantasy.

Mike Kotch 'The Flying Piper' has been playing bagpipes for over 10 years. He is an open competition soloist and has won many prizes. He is a member of the City of Chicago Pipe Band and has played with the Brian Boru Irish Pipe Band of St. Paul, Macalester College Pipe Band, Twin Cities Metro Pipe Band and Kansas City Pipe Band. Mike is also a pilot.



The Brian Boru Irish Pipe Band was established in 1962 to preserve and advance Celtic piping, drumming, and dancing. We are one of the oldest existing pipe bands in the Upper Midwest. Over the years the Brian Boru Band has become a fixture in parades, celebrations, dances, and an increasing number of private festivities. We play for local, regional, and national events, adding a sense of tradition and spirit of pageantry to every program in which we participate.

Our distinctive Irish uniforms -- the saffron kilt, black tunic, and black cabeen (beret) with green or red plumes -- are modeled after traditional Irish pipe bands. A number of the band members wear the original brass buttons from uniforms of the Irish Volunteers, the very units involved in the historic Easter Uprising in Dublin, 1916. Officers of the Brian Boru Band, recognized by the distinctive red sash worn across their left shoulder, choose the tunes you hear.

Some of the music performed by the Brian Boru Band came out of that fierce era of Ireland's past. Other pieces are more modern, and many are much, much older -- ancient reels and airs, timeless ballads and war marches, and lively, lighthearted jigs.

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