The Keith Highlanders Pipe Band returns to KPC, celebrating their 13th year at the Kirkland Performance Center, and 60 years in the Pacific Northwest!

Enjoy the best of traditional Scottish piping, drumming and Highland dancing from the most successful pipe band in the Puget Sound area.  A complete sellout at last year's three concerts, the Keith Highlanders Pipe Band (www.khpb.org), returns to KPC, bringing the finest Celtic entertainment available in the Pacific Northwest to Kirkland!

Special guests this year will be:

• Scooter Muse and Jil Chambliss:
  • Scooter Muse (www.scootermuse.com) has been playing guitar and banjo for over 40 years.  He has his roots in Bluegrass Music and has been privileged to win eight State of Alabama & Tennessee Valley Championship titles for 5 String and Old Time Banjo. He has played banjo with bluegrass legends, Clair Lynch, Vassar Clements and a host of others as well as handling first call banjo duties for the world famous Muscle Shoals, Alabama recording industry.  Scooter began to tap into the incredible world of Celtic Music about 25 years ago, learning a flood of traditional jigs and reels on the banjo and exploring the Celtic domain of open tunings for the guitar. From 1994 till 2002 was founder and leader of one of the country's finest Celtic bands, The Full Moon Ensemble, recording 5 critically acclaimed CDs and touring the US, Canada, and Scotland. After the FME went their separate ways in December of 2002, Scooter was proud to join Henri's Notions after being a big fan of the band for many years! He has released his first solo guitar CD, "Saddell Abbey", with all original material as well as original music set to the poetry of Robert Burns.
    
   
  
  • Jil Chambless (www.jilchambless.com) is one of America's top Celtic music vocalist and musicians. A native of Montgomery, AL, Jil now resides in Tuscaloosa, and has played an active role in the celtic music scene for more than 20 years. As singer, flute, and whistle player, she has completed many recording projects and performed at Celtic festivals and concerts all over the US, as well as Canada, Scotland and Israel. Jil plays with Henri's Notions--the longest running celtic band in the South--and has just released her long awaited solo CD, "The Ladies Go Dancing", produced by the legendary Brian McNeill of Battlefield Band fame.
     
• Champion Solo Piper Jori Chisholm (www.bagpipelessons.com) of the six-time World Champion Simon Fraser University Pipe Band (SFU) (http://www.sfupipeband.com) joins the KHPB in concert to play some of the finest solo piping to be found anywhere in the world.  Jori is the first winner of the United States Gold Medal Piping Championship and recently returned to Seattle from Scotland, where he competed in a number of solo events and won top prizes, including winning the 2009 World Pipe Band Championships this August with SFU.
   
• Highland Dancers from The Bentzen School of Highland Dance (www.bentzenschool.com). Based in Bellevue, WA, The Bentzen School of Highland Dance is one of the finest studios in the Pacific Northwest, with students competing and performing at the local, regional, and national level. Led by instructors Kiki Bentzen and Inge Merry (nee Bentzen), both former champion dancers, the dancers from the Bentzen School of Highland Dance will perform traditional Scottish and choreographed dances, and will amaze the audience with their athleticism and grace.
   
• Fiddlers from the Northwest Scottish Fiddlers (www.nwscottishfiddlers.org) will join us for the first time! The NWSF were re-formed in 2006 with the goal of playing and sharing traditional Scottish fiddle music. Under the guidance of Music Director Calum McKinnon, these fiddlers are high energy and expected to be a crowd favorite this year!

Help celebrate our 13^th year of concerts at the KPC – tickets are going faster than ever before, so order early to guarantee your seat for the best Celtic entertainment in town!

For tickets and box office information, visit: www.kpcenter.org