16-year-old Keshav Harpavat: determined to help cystic fibrosis patients through Highland piping

Keshav Harpavat has created something both transformational and inspirational.

At age 16, he started on the Highland pipes as a student at St. Thomas Episcopal School in Houston and their famed piping and drumming.

While laid up with a lung infection, he had an idea: to see if learning the pipes might help those with a chronic pulmonary condition like cystic fibrosis. CF is a progressive, genetic disease affecting the lungs, pancreas, and other organs – mucus build-up in the lungs can make it difficult for them to breathe.

A very young Keshav recovered, but he kept the idea in mind for a few years. He eventually put together Pipes for the People, an online teaching community to introduce CF patients to the potential benefits, beyond music, of the Highland pipes.

The national office of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation recently announced that it had awarded Harpavat a prestigious Impact Grant to help him build Pipes for the People. Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Impact Grants are “community-focused and partner with individuals and families to support projects and programs that improve the daily lives of people with CF.”

While Keshav does not have CF, he is clearly kind-hearted and creative, possessing a precocious nature well beyond his 16 years.

We wanted to learn about Pipes for the People and discover a little about what makes Keshav Harpavat such a difference-maker in the world piping and drumming community.

Here’s our discussion:

And here’s the text of our conversation with Keshav Harpavat, with minor edits for readability.

pipes |drums: We are pleased to be with 16-year-old Keshav Harpavat from Houston, Texas. Congratulations, Keshav. You’ve just been awarded an impact grant from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation for your Pipes for the People online piping program. Tell us what Pipes for the People is all about.

Keshav Harpavat: Well, thank you for having me, first of all. Pipes for the People is focused on teaching all people with cystic fibrosis how to play the practice chanter. The reason for doing so is to help them increase their breathing capacity overall. As you all may know, playing the bagpipes increases lung capacity and allows you to breathe better.

pipes|drums: I understand you don’t personally have a CF. What inspired you to start the program?

Keshav Harpavat: It’s a funny story. Sometimes I get lacklustre when playing my pipes. If I take a few days off, I get a little lazy. So, it was one of those weeks, and I was around in the seventh grade, and I was feeling pretty under the weather, which was just another excuse not to play my pipes that day. Don’t worry. That’s not the usual way I do it, but just during that time.

My mom said, Why don’t you go outside and play your pipes? It might help overcome your sickness.” I was having a respiratory infection, not too severe. I argued with her a little bit, but then finally I gave in and I blew my pipes up for around just 10, 15 minutes. I saw a lot of coughing at first, but after a little bit, I felt my breathing becoming easier, and I did this for around two to three days, and my respiratory infection went away.

It was gradual, but it did go away. So, I let this idea sit for around a year or two. My seventh-grade self wasn’t really thinking about interacting with children with cystic fibrosis yet. But in ninth grade or the summer before my 10th grade year, I rethought this idea, thinking it could be a great idea to apply to people with cystic fibrosis, specifically, a genetic disease that makes breathing difficult.

I applied the same concept, and we’ve been teaching these patients with cystic fibrosis how to play the chanter. And similar to me, what we’ve seen so far from the program is around a three to five times increase in breathing capacity. Now, we measure that in seconds. We’re not really allowed to use clinical devices, which makes sense because we are underage. I have them blow into the chanter at a steady rate and I record for how long they can blow in.

“We even have one girl who’s blowing 30 seconds on the chanter, which may be even longer than I can do. It’s really been impressive and exciting.”

What we’ve seen is that all students are a little bit different, but first, they started by coughing a lot. Now, we’re virtually having none of them cough, and they’re going from two seconds to maybe 10 seconds. We even have one girl who’s blowing 30 seconds on the chanter, which may be even longer than I can do. It’s really been impressive and exciting.

pipes|drums: That’s amazing. It’s the therapeutic value of the Highland pipes that’s really interesting and sometimes overlooked. You’re onto something. How many people with CF have joined the program so far?

Keshav Harpavat: Wwe have a lot of interest, but with the grant coming through, we’re shipping the chanters out. We’re up to five to 10 students now, but because we just got the grant, the whole point of the CF Impact Grant is to showcase our program throughout the CF community. We’re expecting a significant rise in participants, which is really exciting for the stuff that we have coming up.

It’s included in the Pipes for the People website, but we also have Discord, a platform where patients with cystic fibrosis can connect with each other and talk about their experiences in a controlled, safe setting. Due to the disease, cystic fibrosis patients are not able to communicate with each other in person. We’re using this platform to help them connect.

We want to reach a bigger population because when I’ve even talked to different people who I work with, they don’t really know many other people with CF. It would be helpful for them to interact and share their experiences, relate with other children their age. That’s our idea for the program. And while it’s smaller right now, if you check the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Instagram, they’re linked in, and Pipes for the People, you can sign up there. There’s going to be a lot of information coming out in the coming few days.

pipes|drums: That’s excellent. You’re bringing people together not only with the pipes, but for cystic fibrosis itself and bringing a sense of community. What about expanding to other pulmonary conditions like COPD or asthma?

Keshav Harpavat: We are looking into doing that right now. That’s funny that you say that. I’ll kind of give our future outline. I haven’t told anybody about this yet. Right now we’re focused on cystic fibrosis, but we’re in contact with the Canadian chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, as well as ones overseas in the UK, Scotland. I haven’t heard back from Scotland, but the UK and I are in contact with their cystic fibrosis foundation.

Ireland has the highest concentration of patients with cystic fibrosis. There’s a higher concentration in the UK and Scotland for a few reasons dating back to the Middle Ages. You can look into that, but there’s a higher population there. We’re trying to expand it first to cystic fibrosis foundations overseas, so we can have patients internationally connect.

Also, because they already know the bagpipes more in Scotland, for instance, we’re also open to doing it with other lung diseases or lung abnormalities. It would be a great thing to do. It was really nice of the CF Foundation through the Impact Grant to grant us these funds and support us throughout this whole way. Right now we are focusing on cystic fibrosis, but with their help, we will also look to expand in the future.

Those are our plans. I hope that if it continues to go this well, because we’re seeing amazing results, we’ll go to others like COPD.

pipes|drums: That’s terrific. Before we wrap up, anything more you’d like to add about the program?

Keshav Harpavat: I would just like to say if anyone with CF or COPD or anything like that, or just interested, and you want to reach out, feel free at Pipes for the People. Our end goal by April 2026 is to have our current CF patients make recordings. Yesterday, I just had a girl record “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” on the chanter. She learned it in a few months, believe it or not, which is very impressive. If you’ve played the bagpipes, it takes a long time to get into.

We’re compiling a massive “concert” recording at the end, which we transitioned into a CD, benefiting the CF Foundation as a fundraiser. If you’re interested in joining the program now or the next few months would be the time, feel free to reach out. I’ll call you. We’re really excited to have new people.

pipes|drums: Keshav, congratulations on your initiative and receiving the grant. It sounds like you’re well on your way to something bigger and even better than what you’ve got going on. It’s incredible that at only 16 years old, you’ve got this vision to help people through your Highland piping skills. Well done to you, and good luck with your initiative. We’ll be watching. I’m sure you’ll be doing great things in the future.

Keshav Harpavat: Thank you so much.

Thanks to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation for sharing Keshav’s story with pipes|drums.

pipes|drums readers are encouraged to consider making a donation to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (or equivalent) in their country.