Frank Watson, Award Winning Professional Bagpiper Bagpiper from Toms River, NJ

An award winning Highland bagpiper for all occasions, Frank Watson has piped for 45 years and is Pipe Major of the Duffy's Cut Pipers. He has competed successfully as both a solo performer and with bands. Frank is a winner of the MacLeod Quaich and Sandy Davidson Memorial Trophy for Grade One solo piping, and first place, Grade One Piobaireachd, Delco Games, as well as the 1984 "Award of Excellence" from the Chesapeake Bay Branch, EUSPBA. Frank is a piper for the St. Andrew's Society of Philadelphia (founded in 1747), and has piped at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts and at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, and at Carnegie Hall and Madison Square Garden in New York City, as well as the Meadowlands in New Jersey. Frank instructed ABC Good Morning America's Tony Perkins on the bagpipe for the 2001 annual "Job Swap." His piping is currently featured in two TV documentaries: "Death on the Railroad," a PBS documentary in the "Secrets of the Dead" series; and "The Ghosts of Duffy's Cut," a Smithsonian Channel documentary that was nominated for an Irish Film and Television Academy Award in the Best Single Documentary category, and a Celtic Media Festival award for Best Factual Documentary. Frank piped with classic rocker Bryan Adams on the song "Cuts Like a Knife" at the DuPont Theatre in Wilmington, DE, on March 14, 2011, as part of Adams' "Bare Bones Tour." He also piped for the Mahoney Brothers Band on their CD "Rock and Roll Rodeo" for the song "Half the Man." On March 9, 2012, Frank piped for the Duffy's Cut burial ceremony at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, PA, and on March 2, 2013, he piped in Ardara, County Donegal, Ireland, for the Duffy's Cut burial ceremony. On July 19, 2015 Frank piped at the burial of Duffy's Cut victim, Catherine Burns, in Clonoe, County Tyrone. He is a 2014 inductee of the Delaware Valley Irish Hall of Fame. He holds a PhD from Drew University and is a student of the late Robert Gilchrist.