Port Hope teen tuning up his bagpipes for competition season

When bagpiper Brodick Ewing was asked to fill in at the Port Hope Civic Awards on May 2, it was a full circle moment for the 16 year old who grew up attending them as the son of the former board chair.

But being asked to sub in as the last-minute replacement came as no surprise to Brodick, given how supportive the community has been towards his passion and new business as a performer.

“Port Hope, and this area and region in general, is a very special and supportive place,” says Brodick.

Though he is a multi-instrumentalist, Brodick — also known as The Port Hope Piper — is setting aside his piano and guitar for the summer to focus on his bagpipes, competing both solo and with the Durham Region Police Pipes and Drums.

To kick off the season, the band is heading to the Georgetown Highland Games on June 8, before Brodick competes solo right at home at the Northumberland Scottish Festival and Highland Games in Port Hope on June 15.

While Brodick began playing piano at four years old (and continues to learn from the same teacher today, 12 years later), his mother and manager Avril suggests he has been drawn to music since he was born.

“Even when he was a baby, he loved music,” Avril says. “He was that baby who cried all the time, but we would put on Chasing Pavements by Adele and he would just suddenly go quiet, and he just was in the zone. That was his lullaby.”

At 10 years old, Brodick began taking lessons with the Port Hope Legion Pipe Band to learn to play the chanter (the recorder-like piece of the bagpipe which creates the melody) and graduated to the bagpipes three years later.

“Pipes are such a physically demanding instrument to play that you don’t want to be learning on bagpipes — you learn on your chanter,” Avril says. “Even when they get a new tune, they learn it on the chanter (first) and then play it on the bagpipes.”

“It was definitely a tough start,” Brodick adds. “I think it was a month before I could make a single note.”

While Brodick continues to practise as much as he can — four hours per week with the band on top of private lessons and daily practice at home — his natural talent comes from growing up immersed in his heritage and having attended the Uxbridge Scottish Festival and the Northumberland Scottish Festival and Highland Games every year.

“My entire family is Scottish, so that’s always been a big part of my life,” he says. “My grandpa was a piper back in the day, so I just had that natural influence.”

When Brodick is not travelling for competition, he is available to be booked for private and public events, including weddings, funerals, and parties. Along with the recent Port Hope Civic Awards, he has piped in local restaurants, for his high school rugby team, for the Port Hope Panthers, and has even piped the haggis for Robbie Burns Day.

“The community of Port Hope has given him a lot of opportunities,” says Avril, noting that he was invited to pipe even before he was at the skill level he is at now. “It’s amazing the support he’s been given, but really that’s just Port Hope. It didn’t matter what a kid is doing, people get up and cheer, and I always say everyone’s rooting for you here.”

Since he is so much younger than many of his bandmates, Brodick acknowledges that getting the chance to practise at events in front of people in the community, rather than by himself in his living room, has increased his confidence.

“It’s the simple fact that I know what I’m doing and nobody else does,” he says. “When I make a mistake, I hear it, but nobody else does.”

The next event he has booked is a wedding, for which Avril is doing the ceremony. While it’s the first time the duo will have worked together, Brodick notes his piping has always been a “team effort,” with his mother managing and his father driving him to events and competitions and always being in the stands.

“I’d be nowhere with my mom — well, first I wouldn’t exist,” Brodick laughs. “But even with bagpipes, I’d be nowhere without her support.”

At each of the competitions this summer, it will be easy to spot Brodick’s and his bandmates’ parents, as they will all be sporting matching shirts reading “Band Mom” and “Band Dad” created by Avril.

“In the big grandstands at Maxville, there’s tens of thousands of people in the crowd, so we make sure they know where we are and try to position ourselves right in front of them in their big line so they can see us,” she explains.

When not representing the band, Brodick will be wearing a very special kilt borrowed from a family member that will one day be his, even if for now it must be held up by suspenders until he grows into it.

“It’s the custom kilt my grandfather got married in about 60 years ago and he wore it to all his games,” Brodick says, sharing that it’s of the Ancient MacEwan tartan.

While his nearly 88-year-old grandfather no longer plays, he continues to listen to bagpipe music as much as he can — especially if Brodick is performing.

“It’s nice that Brodick has that piece of him that he will wear for the rest of his life and then hopefully pass down to one of his children or grandchildren many years from now,” says Avril.

Alongside his parents in their matching shirts, Brodick’s grandfather will be in the stands watching him play one of his favourite tunes, “Sweet Maid of Glendaruel”. at the Northumberland Scottish Festival and Highland Games in Port Hope on June 15.

“It’s a great way to spend time as a family,” Avril says. “You only get so many years with your kids, and to be able to do this all together with him and travel and watch him grow and win and do these cool things, it’s been a really neat family experience for all of us. I’ll be 95, in my walker, and still going to the Highland Games to cheer him on.”

To keep up to date on where Brodick can be found, or to book him for events, follow The Port Hope Piper on Facebook.