Coreyanne Armstrong first picked up a bagpipe at the age of 30. A former U.S. Navy officer who served on the carrier USS Eisenhower, she had just given birth to the third of what would be eight children.
An amateur musician who played the flute and piano, Coreyanne said she was hooked after her first few bagpipe practices.
“I was just blown away by it. It was the most challenging thing I’d ever done, and I’ve operated a nuclear reactor and driven a ship through the Suez Canal.”
Eighteen years later, Coreyanne now makes a full-time living playing the bagpipes. She plays in a band, The Rogues, and works gigs just about every weekend and throughout the week, either solo or with her band.
She and four of her children also compete at pipe and drum events with the group The Talcott Mountain Highlanders. Three of the children are drummers and one of them also plays bagpipes. They compete throughout New England, and have also competed in Canada and Scotland. Sometimes they also make up their own impromptu family pipe and drum band to play at events.
"Band is truly a big part of our lives and we travel to contests throughout the season together. We had our first contest at the end of June, one in July, and then we traveled to Canada to compete there in August. We also have a few more in September and October."
Her children - , who range from 7 to 21 years old, and her husband Bob Hunter, live together in a charming and rambling Victorian home on Main Street in Portland. Inside the living room, where two couches and several sitting chairs vie for space with numerous side tables and other furniture, a glass-lined wooden hutch along one wall holds five of Coreyanne’s bagpipes.
On a table in a room on the other side of the home two other bagpipes are laid out where Coreyanne can work on them. There is always, she says, a rotating pair of bagpipes on this table because they must be maintained regularly and unlike most other musical instruments bagpipes can be altered over time to make them better.
“You have to keep the reeds in shape, you have to maintain and improve the bags constantly to make them sound better. The bagpipe is a musical instrument that is constantly fighting you and it takes years to be skilled enough to make changes and improvements to them.” Sitting cross-legged on a couch, her relaxed and unflappable appearance belies her busy lifestyle. It was harder, she says, when the kids - Patience, 21; Gabriel,19; Leon, 17; Claire,16; Greer,12; Daniel,11; Grace,9; Joy, 7 - were younger and she was a newly divorced single mom with such a large brood.
She says she couldn’t have done it without the teamwork that a family of eight naturally develops. Older siblings for years have helped out with babysitting, running errands and making sure younger brothers and sisters get to and from school and extracurricular activities.
“I rely on them a lot and we work well together as a team.”
With that kind of help, and as the children have gotten older, Coreyanne says, she was able to devote more time to her bagpiping and turn it into a true career.
She acknowledges the bagpipes traditionally have been played by men, but says she meets lots of women bagpipers nowadays.
The instrument is much more popular than lay people realize, she adds. Her piping services are requested at a variety of events, including golf tournaments, funerals, weddings, graduations, and convocations, to name a few.
“Bagpipes are pretty much played in any situation where you have to lead a group of people on a small parade,” she jokes.
She and The Rogues, which includes another bagpiper and two drummers, play at a variety of festivals and events as well.
And then there are the occasional one-off gigs, like when she played during a burial at sea and the time the Harwinton High School senior class hired her for a prank to follow the principal around the school for an hour while playing the bagpipes wherever he went.
“That was a really fun one,” says Bob. “The principal was good natured about it. He even hired Coreyanne to come back and play at the graduation that year!”
To learn more and to find out where you can see The Rogues visit TheRogues.com.