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One of the leading schools of Scottish arts in northeast US, New England Scottish Arts aims to keep traditional Scottish arts and culture alive in the area and beyond. We were delighted to speak to one of the founders and their new president about Scottish heritage, tartan, music, Highland Games and more.
An Interview With...
Lezlie Webster - Founder
Personal Connection to Scottish Culture
What is your personal connection to Scottish culture?
My grandfather was born in Glasgow. He emigrated to Canada and married another Scottish descendant. He died before I was born and we didn’t talk about our Scottish heritage until we moved to another town when I was about 7 and our neighbor ran a pipe band and Highland Dance classes. After a few years my father mentioned about our Scottish background!
Have you celebrated your Scottish heritage from a young age?
So I began dancing and then piping. My brother danced for a while but took up drums and became a successful solo drummer and eventually played lead drum in our local pipe band. Both my sisters became Highland Dancers and competed in Scotland. My mother became a kiltmaker for the dance group we ran called The Wee MacGregors. My Dad ran a Highland Games through the Shrine Club for many years so we were all involved.
We must ask of course, what is your favourite tartan? Which tartan do you wear when you’re piping?
I wear the Ancient Hunting MacFarlane from the Pipe Band now. I love so many of the tartans and have had so many kilts over the years.
Speaking of bagpipes, as a professional bagpiper, how did you get started?
My neighbor, George Beley, was a piper and started me off. I then travelled to Ottawa for instruction with Archie Cairns with the Canadian Forces. We also used a reel to reel tape recorder for lessons with Captain John MacLellan. This was for Piobaireachd only. It gave me a great grounding on many tunes. When I turned 18 I went to the College of Piping for 2 ½ years and studied under many great teachers at the time. I passed the Graduate exam for piping and the teacher's exam for Highland Dance. When I returned to Canada I began teaching both piping and dancing. I eventually moved to the Boston area and continued teaching. I competed regularly and I passed the adjudicators exam for Highland Dance and Fellowship exam, too. I became the first female piper to pass the adjudicators exam for the Eastern US Pipe Band Association (EUSPBA).
Your husband, Gordon, was stationed as the personal bagpiper to someone very prominent…please tell our readers a bit more about that!
I met Gordon when he was Pipe Major of the Scots Guards and he was visiting the Highland Games at Loon Mountain, NH. At the time I was running an “All Girls Pipe Band” and was performing with a Celtic group – Pipes Awa. We knew we needed to keep communicating so we visited each other and eventually married the following year in Edinburgh Castle. We lived in London and Gordon was immediately promoted to be the 9th Sovereign’s Piper. This was a prestigious posting and he was in the job for 5 years. He played for the Queen every morning during the week from 9 – 9:20 and then met her at 10am to escort her to appointments. We had fun coming up with new tunes and arrangements to avoid duplicating and finding tunes for special State visits such as Finlandia for the President of Finland or Aka Tomba for the President of Japan.
New England Scottish Arts Centre
Can you describe the primary mission and goals of New England Scottish Arts Centre? How does the Centre seek to promote and preserve Scottish culture?
We teach students at a very high level whether they are competing, doing exams, performing or just doing it for fun. Keeping our standards high and very traditional ensures success and we have been very blessed with talented students that achieve high goals year after year. Pipers are taught one on one and most students play Piobaireachd, the classical music of the pipes. They take their music seriously! I do most of the teaching but Campbell does some when he is not on tour and he runs the NH Pipes and Drums – where many of our students play. Fiddle is also taught one on one by Barbara MacOwen and Marielle Webster. Highland Dance is taught by Marielle; Nancy Lonergan and I fill in from time to time. Drumming is taught through the Pipe Band by Ken MacLeod and Tenor Drumming is taught by Marielle, also at the band.
How can people support & get involved with the Centre?
We run events for our students and local competitors – the Indoor Games, Quechee Games and Pipetoberfest as well as assisting Old Orchard Beach festival. We bring in amazing judges from all over that inspire our competitors and we organize workshops with them as well when we can. Donating to prizes and awards is one way to get involved. Coming and supporting is another!
You’re organising a Burns Night fundraiser, please tell us more about the event and how someone can get a ticket?
This is a serious Burns Night full of traditional toasts, poems, a remembrance of Burns and then some fun entertainment by a great singer, a fabulous Celtic Band that will arouse your dancing feet, some performances by our NH Pipes and Drums and Highland Dancers finishing with Ceilidh dancing! Haggis is served of course! Online tickets are still available but you need to be quick!
Quechee Highland Games
It will be your 50th year of Quechee Highland Games, how do you feel about that?
This will be our 50th year because we didn’t hold a Games during Covid. We are so looking forward to it this year! My head is all about the competitions and having amazing judges and competitors and Pipe Bands. Claire does a remarkable job rounding up so many clans that we welcome with free space and 2 tickets so they can continue to build their memberships back up. The athletics broke world records last year and hope to do so again. We have a tremendous program for the youth that keeps them busy all day making this such a family friendly and truly authentic day.
What’s the history of the Games, how did they start and has anything changed since the beginning?
The Games began with the St Andrews Society of Vermont that began back in 1975. The Games were held in another location but ended up at Quechee, sponsored in part by a Scottish Store called Scotland by the Yard. They retired a few years ago and we took on the full running of the Games. We continue to work with the St Andrews Society of Vermont and hope to help them build back up after Covid. We also have a Scottish store in Vermont called Rablogan that has been very generous and helpful to our organization.
What would you say is unique about the Quechee Highland Games?
It is all so convenient a setting…Competitors park right where they compete. Everything is close by – no long walks! Beautiful green grass, surrounded by trees – just like a Brigadoon setting! Golf Carts pick up people from adjacent parking lot and shuttle people around the Games.
Any good stories you’d like to share with us?
We like to be known for helping out other Scottish groups. You’ll find parents of the pipers and dancers at other Games being stewards, runners. Our Burns Night is full of tables of other Pipe Bands and Scottish Organizations that we are all friends with – from the Scots Charitable to the Canadian American Club, Clan McGillivray and so many more. We appreciate the support we get from everyone and we are more than glad to be able to support so many of them. It’s not really a village – it’s bigger than that…but it’s that idea. We send competitors, judges, helpers, attendees, financial support to many events all year round. Our own students have access to uniforms to borrow, bagpipes to borrow, unlimited music access and a great camaraderie.
Claire Macpherson - President
What is your personal connection to Scottish culture?
I am from Grantown-on-Spey. It’s a small town in Strathspey, part of the county of Morayshire, in the Highlands of Scotland.
When I was young, I cycled to school on a military road, one of many constructed throughout the Highlands around the time of the Jacobite Uprisings - to keep an eye on us!
Grantown is quite new by Scottish standards! It was planned by the Chief of Clan Grant in 1765. The surrounding lands, as far as the eye can see, were previously owned by the powerful Clan Comyn (Cumming).
Morayshire is steeped in the ancient history of Picts and Celts, from Iron Age forts and standing stones to castles and bothies. Most place names around Strathspey are in Scots Gaelic, including Srath Spè itself! Many farms begin with the Gaelic word “ballie” meaning a crofting township or settlement; evidence of the larger population that once lived there.
Although the history of our people was all around me, it wasn’t taught in school; we had recorders, not pipe chanters for instance and very little Scottish music was taught. I think this is true for many other parts of the UK; there’s been a push to ”assimilate” over the centuries. Robert Burns himself rallied against the creation of “North Britain” and the Cornish, Manx and Welsh had to fight to keep their unique Celtic identities.
What does Scottish Arts mean to you and your family? Is there anything in particular you are involved in (eg piping, dance etc)?
I often say I never felt more Scottish until I came to the USA!
We moved to Massachusetts over ten years ago. My older son took up bagpipes with Lezlie Webster in 2019 and my younger son started fiddle in 2020 with Marielle Webster. One of his first tunes was a “Strathspey” called Braes of Mar. It was a huge revelation to discover, not just that Strathspey played such an important part in our music and dance traditions, but that the entire “old world” of Scotland is right here in the States! I suppose it’s not really surprising when you think about it. Vast numbers of Scots have been settling here (and all over the USA and Canada) for centuries as part of the Scottish Diaspora.
Since then, my husband and younger son started snare drumming lessons with New Hampshire Pipes and Drums and together with our piper, they all play in the band!
The traditional pipe and fiddle music taught at Scottish Arts has in effect led us home. That’s an invaluable gift to receive: knowing who you are and where you or your ancestors came from.
I’m committed to helping Scottish Arts in its mission “to preserve, instruct, and maintain this legacy of the traditional Scottish arts”; to helping the Scottish Diaspora discover their Scottish, Celtic or Gallic roots and to community-building for all those who feel a connection to the culture, whether or not it is part of their heritage. After all, the word clan means children in Scots Gaelic and family is at the very heart of it.
We meet so many people at our events who are exploring their roots for the first time. A phrase we hear a lot (and can completely relate to!) is “ I’ve always loved the sound of the pipes but I don’t know why”. My own theory is that it’s such a powerful and ancient identity. Maybe that’s why it has survived so long.
Apart from the enormous gift of discovering a cultural identity! Scottish Arts has filled our home with music and given us a shared interest as a family.
My sons are making life-long friendships through Scottish Arts, on the competition scene and in their pipe band. Unlike a school band that ends when you leave school, a pipe band can carry on through your whole life. My sons have the benefit, not just of being amongst peers, but a range of ages and life experiences. We have such an eclectic mix of people in our pipe band family! They are fascinating and fun to be around.
And we keep making new friends on the “Scottish circuit”. It’s year-round fun, starting with Scottish Arts’ spectacular Burns Night, followed by our Scottish Indoor Festival in April (16 and counting pipe bands competing this year!), our Quechee Games in beautiful Vermont in August and closing the piping and drumming competition season, our spooky celebration of Pipetoberfest at Hallowe’en! Not to mention all the other Highland Games and Scottish events going on throughout the year, such as the Tartan Ball in Andover, MA hosted by our friends at the Scots’ Charitable Society.
We must ask of course, what is your favourite tartan?
It has to be Clan MacPherson! Touch Not the Cat Bot a Glove! Very proud of my MacPherson clan. I found out during a visit to NTS’ Culloden Visitor Centre that our chief Cluny had been a formidable military commander and had actually regrouped at Ruthven Barracks outside Kingussie to fight on after the Jacobite defeat at Culloden, but Bonnie Prince Charlie decided to abandon the cause.
Although I’m from ”Clan Grant country”, I’ve always felt a connection to the neighboring Clan MacPherson land in Badenoch. There’s something about those stunningly beautiful Monadhliath Mountains that transfixes me. It must be the fact they are on MacPherson Land!
What is your role within New England Scottish Arts and what is the most rewarding aspect of it?
Earlier this year, I had the great honor of becoming the President of Scottish Arts. Prior to that, I was the Clans and Societies Coordinator, a position I am still privileged to hold.
We are big supporters of our clans in the New England area and of their crucial preservation work. Our Scottish Festival in April and our Quechee Games in August are free for clans and other heritage organizations to attend. We encourage people to find their clans at our events and to don their tartan not just as a source of pride, but it’s also great to be able to spot our “cousins” at the Games and to cheer them on if they are competing!
We also run the Quechee Quest, a fun way for our younger guests to interact with their clans and dig deeper into their roots. The winning clan is honored at our next Games. Clan MacGillivray is our honored clan for Quechee’s 50th year in August 2025!
And many clans support us in turn, coming to our Burns Night fundraiser or donating medals, trophies and scholarships to reward our youth and their dedication to music and dance.
In addition to the clans, Scottish Arts takes pride in helping other Scottish heritage organizations. It’s that sense of community spirit that is bound up in our Scottish identity, from the earliest times of the tribes in Gaul to the Highland clans, family has always been at the core.
The most rewarding aspect of my work at Scottish Arts is knowing that I’m part of an organization that is committed to staying authentic and true to our roots, striving for excellence in the arts and dedicated to training future teachers and judges, ensuring this beautiful culture of ours not only survives but thrives for generations to come.
Any interesting stories you’d like to share with us?
When I first started volunteering for Scottish Arts, our founder Lezlie Webster asked me to invite the clans to our annual Burns Night and to Quechee Games. I had no idea where to begin to track them down! The people who helped me reach out to the clans in those very early days were a member of Clan Chattan, a Mackintosh, a MacGillivray and a Farquharson. Is it a coincidence that every one of those clans are ancient allies of the Macphersons?
Our ties go way back!
Thank you so much, Lezlie and Claire! Visit Scottish Arts' website here and find more information on their Quechee Games here, Pipetoberfest here and Burns Night here.
