Highland music at LHS Friday night

The sounds of the Highlands will fill the Laconia High School auditorium tomorrow evening as a traditional Scottish concert with bagpipes, fiddles and dancing takes center stage. "Ceilidh on the Road" is a presentation of The College of Piping and Celtic Performing Arts of Canada, located in Summerside, Prince Edward Island (PEI).

Ceilidh (kay-lee) is a Gaelic word for an informal social get-together.

The performers — billed as "100% authentic, heartfelt Celtic" — are brought to Laconia by the Putnam Fund. The concert begins at 8 p.m. and, as always, admission is free and on a first-come first-seated basis.

Singer/songwriter/recording artists Patricia Murray will serve as host. In 1997 she became the first Canadian to take top honors in Gaelic singing — the prestigious Sliver Pendant Award — at the Royal National Gaelic Mod in Inverness, Scotland.

Piper Scott MacAulay is director of the College of Piping and a world champion bagpiper. He was raised in Ontario by parents from the Isle of Lewis — one of the last strongholds of Scotland's ancient Highland culture. MacAulay took up the pipes at age seven.

Troy MacGillivray will play a keyboard and fiddle. Both sides of the recording artists family have been proprietors of the Gaelic tradition in Nova Scotia for generations. He began step dancing at age six and by age thirteen he was teaching piano at the renowned Gaelic College of Celtic Arts and Crafts on Cape Breton.

Another recording artist, Tim Chaisson will play guitar and keyboard. The PEI native has recorded two CDs, including "Something Acoustic". He started playing fiddle at age six.

The College of Piping Dance Company was created to give Highland dancers and step dancers at The College an opportunity to perform within their community and throughout the region. The dancers range in age from seven to 18 and have been studying dancing for up to eleven years.