Eric Rigler

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Eric Rigler
Eric Rigler live in Concert 2012.jpg
Eric Rigler performing live in 2012
Background information
Birth nameEric Rigler
Genres Folk, Celtic, Celtic rock
Occupation(s) Musician
Instrument(s) Uilleann pipes, Tin Whistle, Bagpipes

Eric Rigler is an American player of the Uilleann pipes, Great Highland Bagpipes, and tin whistle. He performs as a solo artist and with the band Bad Haggis, and has been featured on a number of movie soundtracks. [1] He has been described as "the most recorded bagpiper of all time". [2] He has been playing all forms of bagpipes and tin whistles since he was a child, performing solo, with bagpipe bands and other musical groups.

He has been featured playing Great Highland bagpipes, Uilleann pipes and tin whistle on numerous movie soundtracks, including Titanic , Million Dollar Baby , Road to Perdition , Braveheart , Cinderella Man , Robots , Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me , The Prince of Egypt , and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World . His music was frequently used on the NBC show Crossing Jordan , and his arrangement of an Irish tune was used as its opening theme during the first season. [1] He was also featured on the USA Network in the 2006 Victoria's Secret fashion show, playing the bagpipes for the Highland romance sequence and for the AFI Lifetime Achievement celebration for Sean Connery.

Rigler played "Amazing Grace" at former President Ronald Reagan's funeral in 2004. [1]

Rigler plays pipes and whistles in the Celtic world fusion band he formed, Bad Haggis, based in Southern California. He occasionally performs with Los Angeles–based rock band the Young Dubliners. Rigler wrote the tunes "The B-52" and "Walking the Plank", which are performed by the World Pipe Band Champion Field Marshal Montgomery Pipe Band of Northern Ireland, the Los Angeles Scottish Pipe Band, and other top level bagpipe bands throughout the world.

On February 12, 2013, San Bernardino County Sheriff's Detective Jeremiah MacKay was killed on duty near Big Bear, California in a firefight. Rigler played a special tribute at his funeral on February 21, 2013, along with 130 other bagpipers and drummers to honor the fallen officer. MacKay was the department's official bagpiper, who had performed at the funerals of other officers.

In 2016, Rigler performed on Dream Theater's song "The X Aspect," on their album The Astonishing , marking the first use of bagpipes in a Dream Theater recording.

Related Research Articles

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Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, Northern Africa, Western Asia, around the Persian Gulf and northern parts of South Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uilleann pipes</span> National bagpipe of Ireland

The uilleann pipes, sometimes called Irish Bagpipes, are the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland. Earlier known in English as "union pipes", their current name is a partial translation of the Irish language terms píobaí uilleann, from their method of inflation. There is no historical record of the name or use of the term uilleann pipes before the 20th century. It was an invention of Grattan Flood and the name stuck. People mistook the term 'union' to refer to the 1800 Act of Union; this is incorrect as Breandán Breathnach points out that a poem published in 1796 uses the term 'union'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chanter</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Highland bagpipe</span> Type of bagpipe native to Scotland

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Prydein is an American Celtic rock group formed in 1999. They are notable for their use of bagpipes in a rock band setting. They were formed in Burlington, Vermont, and have released five albums to date. Prydein has played many major festivals up and down the East Coast and the Midwest United States, including the Celtic Classic, New Hampshire Highland Games, and the Detroit Highland Games, and have been featured at the Eastern States Exposition for five years and the New World Festival for 10 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Irish warpipes</span> Woodwind instrument native to Ireland

Irish warpipes are an Irish analogue of the Scottish Great Highland Bagpipe. "Warpipes" is originally an English term. The first use of the Gaelic term in Ireland was recorded in a poem by Seán Ó Neachtain, in which the bagpipes are referred to as píb mhór.

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Rigler or Riegler is a surname. It may refer to:

References

  1. 1 2 3 Eric Rigler
  2. CD Baby: BADHAGGIS: Ark