Marching to the beat: UTM student headed to world pipe band competition
From weekly practices to weekend competitions at Highland games across Ontario and the United States, U of T Mississauga student Priya Kaur Kesh keeps the beat with the Peel Regional Police Pipe Band. The 19-year-old biology and political science student is a tenor drummer with the band’s drum corps and one of the youngest members of the group, Her passion for pipe and drum music will take her to abroad this summer when she joins the band to compete at the World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow, Scotland on August 12 and 13, 2016.
Raised in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Kesh grew up in a musical family, playing violin and piano along with the taus, a classical Indian stringed instrument, but Kesh says her first love is drumming. “I like the complexity of rhythym,” she says, laughing as she remembers how her tabla drum-playing father would quiz Kesh and her sisters about the time signatures of songs on the car radio. At home, Kesh and her sisters play with the Sri Dasmesh Pipe Band, one of the few Highland bands in Malaysia.
Kesh is one of five tenor drummers with the Peel police band. The group also includes a bass player, seven snare drummers and about 15 pipers. “You hear the pipes and the bass drum, but you see the tenors,” Kesh says. She weaves the red ties of her drumsticks through her fingers to keep her grip during “flourishes”—the twirling and whirling of the pompom-headed drumsticks that lend visual interest to the performance. “Everything has to be synchronized. We swing at the same time, but hit our drums separately because each drum is tuned to a different note.”
Back home in Malaysia, Kesh wore a band uniform that featured a turban and a white Sikh bana outfit, draped with a Royal Stewart tartan sash and a synthetic tiger skin apron. In contrast, the Peel police band uniform is a traditional Scottish outfit, featuring a McPherson tartan kilt and a vest and button-down shirt accessorized with a checked Glengarry cap, lace-up ghillie brogues and a traditional sporran, which Kesh turns to the side so it doesn’t interfere with the large drum strapped to her waist.
Kesh says she’s looking forward to the Scottish World’s competition. She attended with the Dasmesh band in 2015, but this will be her first time competing in the top tier category. The annual two-day festival draws about 40,000 spectators and 230 competing bands. The Peel police band will face 21 of the world’s best pipe and drum bands in their top level category.
In competition, the band will play a five-minute medley of traditional tunes and an “MSR”—a set of three tunes that includes a march, a strathspey and a reel. The trio of tunes feature distinct time signatures and melody lines that test the musical abilities of the pipers and the drum corps.
Between performances, Kesh plans to watch the competition and visit with her family members flying from Malaysia to see her. “I’m really looking forward to seeing other tenor drummers,” she says. “There’s so much to learn from the top level tenor drummers. I watch their drum lines practice, and try to copy their flourishes.”
When she returns from Glasgow, Kesh will begin her second year at UTM where she is taking a double major in biology (health sciences) and political science. “They seem like very different subjects, but I hope to eventually combine them to work on global health policies,” she says. In her spare time, Kesh volunteers with Brampton entrepreneur incubator LAB B, where she leads the Creative Economy Internship program.
Watch the Peel Regional Police Pipe Band play in Kincardine, Ontario. (Priya Kesh stands to to the left of the big bass drum.) >
See the Sri Damesh Pipe Band playing in the streets of Glasgow in 2015 >