New York Metro collects for hurricane relief at Pittsburgh concert

Although the New York Metro Pipe Band had planned months ago to stage a concert in Pittsburgh on November 10th, it didn’t know then that the event would follow a disaster of massive proportions in its backyard. So the Grade 2 group mobilized and put the word out to concert-goers to donate supplies for victims in New Jersey and eastern New York.

Hurricane Sandy, which hit the eastern United States, devastating shoreline from North Carolina to New York on October 29th, disrupted practices for the band and the concert itself, with many members involved with fire and rescue services, repairing damaged homes and some band members without power in their own houses. New York Metro managed to carry on with the concert with smaller numbers.

 
The “When Spirits Rise” concert was part of the Balmoral Classic Festival of Piping, held at the McGonigle Theater of Central Catholic High School in Pittsburgh.

 
The band delivered a full set of music, including a new arrangement by piper Matthew Welch of the air, “She Moved through the Fair” and a performance of “The Cannongate Kirk Suite,” by Scottish harpist Phamie Gow, which the band had recently debuted with the composer at the Mercy Lounge rock club in New York City.

New York Metro returned home by bus on November 11th with donations of supplies from the Pittsburgh pipe band community, which the band will deliver as part of the relief effort.