Andrew Adams - Snare
Andrew's first time wearing a kilt was July 4th, 1987. He was 11
years old and was the drum major for his dad's bagpipe band in Juneau,
Alaska. He was visiting his dad, whom had moved there in 1979. He
had moved there with Andrew's oldest Brother Shawn, who played snare
drum in the same band. He waited 12 years to wear one again.
In high school, his chorus teacher asked if he would be interested in
being a drummer in the school band. His chorus teacher taught him to
read music and he quickly became the senior drummer at school, playing
in the concert band, marching band, and jazz band. At the age of 15,
he also joined his first rock band, made up of all adults.
Shortly after leaving college, in 1995, he replied to an ad in a local
newspaper; "Drummers wanted for Scottish Bagpipe Band". He joined his
first band, the Green Mountain Highlanders from Thetford, VT (Grade
4). He competed on bass drum for the first season, and then moved to
snare drum. It was here that he met Iain MacHarg.
In 2000 he, along with Ian MacHarg, founded the Catamount Pipe Band of
Montpelier, VT. He led the drum corps and took the band to Grade 3
and 4 in the 2005 season. He left in 2005 due to person differences
with the PM. He joined Michael Heninghams' drum corps at this time,
where he has been ever since. The drum corps was playing with the
Rhode Island Highlanders. Joinging late in the season, Andrew managed
to learn all of the band material in a matter of weeks and compete
with the band the first time out for the season.
In 2002 the Graham Highlanders of St Johnsbury Academy were looking to
start a drumming program. He started working with the band, and in
2003 the band took 1st place honors at the Stone Mountain Highland
Games in North Carolina. He started teaching full time at the Academy
in 2004 when the school started offering pipe band drumming as a
school class.
He is also hired as an instructor for many other bands on the East
coast and often teaches weekend workshops to these bands. (Brian Boru
of Falmouth, MA; Rocky Bay of Bangor, ME; Taconic Pipe Band of Hoosic
Falls, NY; Scots Highland Pipe Band of Ashby, MA; Eagle Pipe Band of
Fredricksburg, VA)
Currently he takes weekly lessons from Reid Maxwell of Simon Fraser
University and monthly lessons from Eric MacNeil of Oran Mor.
In his spare time, he actively continues martial arts (2nd degree
black belt in Shotokan Karate) a medieval reenactment society and
renaissance fencing.
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