A Unique Pipe & Drum Ensemble in New Jersey

Joseph Smolinski, Assistant Director and bagpipe instructor for the West Milford Township High School Highlander Pipe & Drum Ensemble in New Jersey, entered the reception at his own wedding the same way he approaches music education: non-traditionally. Alongside his new wife, Kristy — also a bagpipe instructor for the Highlander Band — the Smolinskis donned their own sets of bagpipes, which they performed as they entered the party.

Smolinski and his wife weren’t the only bagpipe performers at the wedding. They had hired student musicians from West Milford to play as well. Also in attendance was Matthew Gramata, Director of Bands at West Milford. “We got Matt [Gramata] to put a kilt on for the first time!” Smolinski says with a laugh.

For music students at West Milford, this wedding wasn’t a unique experience. It was one of many performance gigs for the student musicians. Often, the Highlander Pipe & Drum Ensemble, which has been active since 1990, gets paid gigs, which students use as a fundraising opportunity.

Paid gigs and fundraisers help students attend one of the Pipe & Drum Ensemble’s most anticipated events: A once-every-four-years trip to Europe, where students can attend bagpipe clinics and perform at castles in Edinburgh, Scotland. “The last UK trip, the money we raised from their gigs paid for their clinicians,” Smolinski says. “That was a point of pride for the kids.”

During the past 35 years, the Highlander Pipe & Drum Ensemble has performed everywhere from Blair Castle in Scotland, to onstage with professional touring Celtic rock bands like the Red Hot Chilli Pipers, to right at home on their own football field, where Gramata and Smolinski incorporate bagpipe music into their school’s marching band shows. “I’m always looking to do something innovative and creative, that no one else is doing,” says Gramata.

The Highlands at Home

It may be surprising to learn that West Milford High School doesn’t have any notable ties to Scottish history. The bagpipe ensemble was actually inspired by a play on words. “We live in the Highlands region of New Jersey,” Smolinski says.

As a result, ever since the 1960s, the high school’s mascot has been the Highlander. Throughout the 1970s and ’80s, the school had a few students who played bagpipes, but it wasn’t until 1991 that West Milford decided to fully embrace the connection.

For a large chunk of that time, Gramata and Smolinski have been in charge of the program. Gramata, who started at West Milford in 2010, has been running the Highlander Band Program for 16 years. Smolinski has been involved even longer: He and his wife were both students in the Highlander Pipe & Drum Ensemble in the early 2000s. After Smolinski graduated, he was offered the role of bagpipe instructor in 2008 and has worked with the ensemble professionally ever since.

Currently, the ensemble includes 20 students ­— about 10 pipers and 10 percussionists. A few years ago, Gramata and Smolinski put together a weekly after-school bagpipe club at the middle school so students could learn the basics of bagpipes before their freshman year. “They spend the first bit of their time on a practice bagpipe, reminiscent of a recorder,” Smolinski says.

From Tradition to Techno

During the past three decades, the Highlander Pipe & Drum Ensemble has grown in size, skill and expanded the styles of music they perform. At first, the ensemble focused mostly on traditional British, Scottish and Irish styles of music — the kind that most people associate with bagpipes.

Over time, though, Gramata began hypothesizing that the bagpipe sound could work well with a variety of different music genres. “We feature the bagpipe more as a sound, or a different timbre,” he says. “We’ve done bagpipes with hip-hop music, with techno and EDM, with rock music.”

Students in the Pipe & Drum Ensemble play more than bagpipes. They must be involved in the concert band or marching band as well. As a result, Gramata, who was recognized as a 2026 Yamaha “40 Under 40” music educator, can incorporate bagpipe music directly into marching band shows on the football field.

All students start off playing their usual brass, woodwind or percussion instrument during marching band shows. Then, in the show’s transitional moment, students go behind a prop or set piece, where they swap their first instrument for the bagpipes.

In the past, Gramata worried that the Highlanders’ non-traditional approach to both bagpipe and marching band music would put them at a competitive disadvantage. “We used to think that we wouldn’t be successful in the Bands of America circuit,” he says. “But this past year, we went to the Mid-Atlantic Regional and made finals.”

A Special Kind of Woodwind

Incorporating the bagpipes into a marching band show comes with its own set of challenges. “One of the biggest issues we have to deal with musically is the pitch of a bagpipe,” Smolinski says. “It’s a lot sharper than other instruments.”

Since the early 2000s, the Highlander Band has been working with manufacturers in the UK, such as McCallum and Wallace Bagpipes, to get special equipment made for this purpose. The melodic piece of the bagpipe, the chanter, is a double-reed instrument like an oboe, and shaped similar to a recorder. The Highlanders have specially made chanters with a lower pitch so that the bagpipes blend in tonally with the other wind instruments on the field.

The bagpipes also come with other special considerations that other wind players may not be used to. “Because of the lack of embouchure, we cannot adjust the pitch as we are playing; there is no embouchure contact with the reed itself,” Smolinski says. “Unlike other instruments that students must adjust as they’re performing, a bagpipe has to be in tune before the performer goes out there.”

Ample warmup and tuning time are essential for bagpipes prior to a performance. “Students spend a lot of time in warmups,” says Gramata, who was recognized as a 2026 Yamaha “40 Under 40” music educator. “They do a great job tuning the instruments before they go out [on the field].”

Rock Star Status

Embracing rock music on the bagpipes has landed the Highlander band the opportunity to perform with professional Celtic rock band, the Red Hot Chilli Pipers, who won the British talent show “When Will I Be Famous?” back in 2007.

Because of Smolinski’s work as a bagpipe performer — outside of instructing the Highlander band, he also performs with New Jersey’s professional Claddagh Pipe Band — he had connections to the Red Hot Chilli Pipers and decided to reach out about a performance opportunity. He explains, “We asked, ‘Can we open for you when you come to the New Jersey area?’”

At first, the Chilli Pipers’ agent replied that the band wasn’t looking for opening acts — but then, he offered something even better: The opportunity to perform a song onstage with the band.

As a result, the Highlander band joined the Chilli Pipers for the last several performances in New Jersey. “We planned a song in advance. They sent us sheet music and made us show up and do a sound check with them,” Smolinski says.

During their last performance with the Chilli Pipers, the Highlanders had a request: After learning to play some of Avicii’s music on the bagpipes for a performance at school, they wanted to play “Wake Me Up” together. The Chilli Pipers agreed, offering to play two songs onstage with the Highlanders. “They’re a really down-to-earth, eager crew,” Smolinski says. “They like the vibe of us breaking barriers with them.”

American Pipers Abroad

Every four years, Gramata organizes a tour of the UK, where the Highlander band members get the opportunity to perform in England and Scotland. “We fly into London and play outside the Royal Albert Memorial. We trek up to Scotland and play at Sterling Castle and Blair Castle,” Gramata says. “For a lot of the kids, it’s their first time on an airplane. … They learn a ton about history and culture.”

Because of Smolinski’s network of contacts at the National Piping Centre in Glasgow and other instructors from Scotland, he and Gramata are able to organize classes for the students with some of Scotland’s best clinicians.

A trip abroad is never cheap, which is why fundraising has become a major focus. “We live in a pretty blue-collar area in Northwestern New Jersey,” Gramata says. “Things are getting more expensive in the world … [but] we want to get as many kids to go as possible.”

Alongside a devoted band parent organization running fundraisers like pizza sales, students can earn money for the trip through paid performance gigs. Thankfully, Smolinski says, parade committees are often looking for bagpipe players and are prepared to pay for them. The band also takes paid gigs at community functions, like weddings, funerals, memorials and Little League opening day ceremonies.

All the band’s extra paid work throughout the year pays off when students finally take that trip to Europe and spread their music around the world.

On the most recent trip, the Highlanders’ music had an emotional impact on a groundskeeper at Blair Castle in Scotland. “She was so jubilant,” Smolinski says. “She said, ‘It’s phenomenal! You’re playing the old tunes, but in your American way!’”

After performing at school functions, professional gigs and around the world, there is still one thing that the Highlander Pipe & Drum Ensemble hasn’t done: Compete against other pipe bands. According to Smolinski, that’s where the band is heading next. “One thing that’s been a roadblock is that the main portion of the competitive season is during the summer, when students aren’t together,” he says. “But I found an opportunity: There’s a new event, the Union Celtic festival, which takes place in May.”

Next May, the band will attend this festival in Central Jersey as its first-ever pipe ensemble competition. “I’m pretty confident that we’ll be a strong contender,” Smolinski says.