George balderose

• Bagpiper
• Pennsylvania

George Balderose, a piper with nearly thirty years of performing experience, plays the Great Highland Pipes and/or small pipes for weddings, concerts, festivals, funerals, birthday celebrations, and other special events. George also performs with Irish and Scottish dancers and teaches Scottish and Irish pipe music on the Great Highland Bagpipe and various types of small pipes.

He has performed as a soloist at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City, at Carnegie Music Hall in Pittsburgh, and four times as a guest artist with the Pittsburgh Symphony at Heinz Hall. He has also appeared in concert with Tom Chapin and John McCutcheon, The River City Brass Band, Brigadoon with Point Park College and the Civic Light Opera at the Benedum, and others. A New York Times reviewer described George as having a “virtuoso’s gift” and in the words of another he is a “virtuosic piper.” His many competitive successes include winning the MacCrimmon Quaich for Grade One piping four times.

His piping has been recorded on H.K. Hilner’s Dream Cathedral, The Dewar’s Bagpipe Festival recording, A Celtic Christmas on the KRB label, as well as his own recording, Bagpipe Music Selections: Great Highland Pipes and small pipes. He is also a featured artist on the video, Road to the Isles.

In 1978 George founded and continues to instruct and serve as Director of the Balmoral Schools of Highland Piping, a non-profit corporation that produces piping instructional sessions at four or five universities across the USA each summer.

In 1981 George was awarded the Senior Certificate in Piping from the College of Piping in Glasgow, Scotland. George currently serves as a Trustee of the Clan Donald Educational and Charitable Trust, and since 1989 has been a member of the Governor of Pennsylvania’s Heritage Affairs Commission’s Traditional and Ethnic Arts Touring Program.