Grantown Museum opened in 1999 on completion of a Heritage Lottery Funded project, and goes back in its memories to 1765 and the beginning of the story of “Sir James Grant’s Town.” Molly Duckett, the curator that afternoon, approached me to say that a piper stood at the door asking to speak to the Chief. In the absence of Lord Strathspey and any member of the UK Council, I took it upon myself to speak to the piper and find out what he wanted.

            It turned out that he was a Seán Cumming, from Lake Tahoe, California who wanted to meet the Chief and play for him. Unfortunately, the Chief was not available, and Seán Cumming was in Grantown for only that afternoon; he had come to the World Piping Championship held in Glasgow the previous Saturday and, knowing nothing about the Clan Grant Gathering, was about to return to America. The Grants present in the Museum indicated that they would be delighted to hear him play, if such was his wish.

            It turns out that he is an eight-generation descendant of William Cumming, “The Piper to the Lord Grant” shown in the famous portrait. Apparently, Seán and his best friend decided to learn the pipes, and the teenagers were directed to the Gordon Highlanders of Buffalo, New York; they joined the band, and Seán has been an expert player ever since. After service in the Navy as a meteorologist, he studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, which led to a position as an award winning designer at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Living now in what he likes to call “Loch” Tahoe, he now builds houses, is a ski-instructor for Sierra at Tahoe, and plays the bagpipes professionally.

            One birthday, his wife gave him Hugh Cheape’s The Book of the Bagpipe wherein he read the following passage:

Other family dynasties of pipers emerged besides the MacCrimmons of Harris and Skye, such as...the Cummings of Badenoch and Strathspey, the successive generations of whom performed the duties of official piper for their clan chieftain patrons through hundreds of years and who sustained and generated the music of the bagpipe until the collapse of the society which nurtured them in the wake of the Jacobite wars of the 18th century.

And when he first saw the portrait of William Cumming, "The Piper to the Lord Grant," at the Ben Lomond Games, with his daughter, he determined to follow in that tradition and work on being an outstanding piper.

            It was a pity that he did not meet the present Chief, but perhaps in the future that can be rectified. On  that Thursday afternoon in August, he marched back and forth on the green before the Grantown Museum and put on a fine exhibition of piping for the visitors to the Museum and also for the local passers-by. One young lady pushing a pram stopped to say that she used to play the pipes before the baby was born, but no longer had the breath to inflate the bag; Seán inflated the bag for her while she ran her fingers over the chanter and gave a creditable performance. Then Brenda Grant of Ottawa, part of the Canadian contingent at the Clan Gathering, drew out her pipes, and stirring duets were played such as “Amazing Grace” and “Highland Cathedral” in which Brenda carried the tune and Seán contributed the ‘seconds.’

            Seán has obviously earned his spurs as a piper, and is a fine young man whom the Chief would, I think, be delighted to meet. Seán’s web-site is www.tahoebagpiper.com, and there more can be learned about a present-day Cumming piper.

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