Denise Foley

Before you read the first word about Brian McNamara, go to his Web site and listen. We’ll wait till you come back.

Now, don’t say anything about the mellow tones of his uilleann pipes as he plays the gentle air of Ní ar Chnoc ná ar Ísleacht from his CD, “A Piper’s Dream.” Or the jaunty rhythm of the reel, Biddy from Muckross, from his latest, “Fort of the Jewels.”

As The Pipers Review put it, “anything you might say is made ludicrous by the presence of greatness.”

McNamara, who will be appearing Saturday night at 8 p.m. at the Coatesville Cultural Society,143 East Lincoln Highway, in Coatesville, is the piper’s piper. Internationally known, he was a winner of multiple All-Ireland titles at the junior and senior levels in the 1980s, and his style is considered “unique.”

And it all started when he was 12.

“My father is a flute player, and I was playing the tin whistle for a year before he rhetorically asked my brother Ray and I if we wanted to learn to play the pipes,” Brian told irishphiladelphia.com. “Neither of us had a clue what he was talking about, but we knew the answer was supposed to be ‘yes.’”

His father had been in contact with famed piper Peter Maguire who was prepared to make a practice set and teach them to play.  So, of course, the answer was yes.

By all accounts, the uilleann pipes—a smaller, lap-version of the more familiar Highland pipes and operated by a bellows—are one of the toughest pipes to learn to play. “Not having played others it’s a little bit difficult to be objective about that, but I can’t imagine anything more difficult,” Brian laughs. “Also, the temperature, humidity and the environment affects the instrument greatly, so you never know what you’re going to get from them. And when you’re a beginner, you don’t know if it’s you or the pipes. But it’s a bit like a relationship. You know how good it can be, but it’s not always that way, so you pursue it so you can have more of those good times. And when everything’s going well, it’s bliss.”

In his own pursuit of more “good times,” the 39-year-old County Leitrim native gave up his job as a professor of biomedical engineering at Dublin City University to teach engineering to high schoolers at St. Peter’s College in Dunboyne, County Meath, just north of Dublin. “It gives me the luxury of using the summer months to do this kind of thing,” he says.

By that he means touring and teaching. Prior to his Saturday concert, McNamara will be conducting a workshop for would-be uilleann pipers from the area. “I love teaching,” he says. “And it’s a real privilege to be able to entertain people and also to teach them.”

And if you’re going to his concert Saturday night, be prepared to learn a few things. He admits that he’s “not sure what I’m playing yet.” He wants to play tunes from geographical areas that interest his audience, so he’ll be taking requests. “I also try to pick music that’s associated with different centuries in Ireland, from the 1600s to modern compositions,” he explains. “In 1600, the harp dominated Irish music, then in 1700 it was the pipes, and when you hear the music, you’ll be able to pick that out. I like to give people context, not just a series of notes. The music represents a social strata, a time period, or geographical entity. And I like to talk about the personalities behind the tunes. That brings a lot more meaning to my tunes. If I don’t know the historical background of a tune, it’s hard for me to give it an identity.”

But don’t worry—there won’t be a quiz afterwards.

Just a whole lot of bliss.