About Rick Damon

Bagpiper

 Rick began playing the Great Highland Bagpipes in 1989.  He soon discovered the many other types of bagpipes in existence all over the world after attending The North American Northumbrian Pipers' Convention in 1990.  Rick played in the Thetford, Vermont based Green Mountain Highlanders, where he met Dawn.  Rick and Dawn both later joined the Catamount Pipe Band.  Rick's primary instructors have been Iain Mac Harg and Hamish and Fin Moore, along with a host of other wonderful pipers at Hamish & Fin Moore's annual bellowspipe school in Richmond, VT.

After volunteering at The North American Northumbrian Pipers' Convention for several years, Rick joined a group who formed the board of directors for The Pipers' Gathering, to continue promoting that rich tradition of folk and traditional bagpipe music from around the world.  Along the way Rick took up a variety of other bagpipes.  He now plays the Great Highland Bagpipe (an heirloom silver-and-ivory Henderson set), the Scottish Smallpipes (made by Hamish & Fin Moore), the Cornish bagpipes (made by Julian Goodacre), the Border pipes (made by Hamish & Fin Moore), and the Northumbrian smallpipes (made by Colin Ross).

Woodworker

Rick has been doing high-quality woodworking since 1994, and built his own workshop in 1997 to pursue this hobby and business.  The first two pipe cases were designed and built as gifts.  It is this same careful design that is now in various configurations for different types of pipes.