Hi folks - thanks for visiting my website.  I'm Laura Neville, piper, bagpipe instructor, and creator of The Airy Glengarry, the world’s first and only lightweight, breathable headgear for kilt wearers, and The Inverness Poncho, raingear that fits in your sporran. While my performance and instruction services are available for purchase through this site.,The Airy Glengarry and The Inverness Poncho are now only available through Winter Piper, distributor of the wildly populare Ghillie Cloud shoes. To order, email winterpiperinfo@gmail.com.

A little about me... I have been playing the Great Highland Bagpipe since 1998, and having studied with some of our nation’s greatest players and teachers I quickly rose through the competitive ranks to compete as a top Grade 1 soloist in events sanctioned by the Eastern United States Pipe Band Association. In addition to myriad Highland Games competitions, I have performed successfully in the United States Piping Foundation competition in Newark, DE and the Midwest Highland Arts Fund Silver Medal competition in Kansas City, MO, and I was chosen four times to represent the Metro Branch of the EUSPBA in the Pipe Major George M. Bell Amateur Championship held annually at the Metro Cup in Newark, NJ.

Most recently I was invited, as one of the top twelve Grade 1 pipers in North America, to compete in the 2020 Nicol Brown Invitational, and was awarded the Gold Medalist plaque for ranking #1 in Piobaireachd in the EUSPBA in 2020.

As a piper I appear frequently as a guest artist with concert bands, choirs and orchestras and have performed with members of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the National Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the Baltimore Symphony, The United States Army Field Band, The United States Army Band “Pershing’s Own,” and The “President’s Own” United States Marine Band, to name a few, as well as numerous community and high school groups.

In addition to teaching bagpipes privately, I conduct workshops for pipe bands throughout the Eastern Seaboard and have been employed as a playing instructor for several successful competitive pipe bands as well as performance-only bands. I am currently Pipe Major of the Rancocas Creek Pipe Band of Burlington County, NJ, a band comprised of my bagpipe students and professional percussionist friends who have taken up pipe band drumming.

I am a member of the Coast Guard Auxiliary and the United States Coast Guard Pipe Band, and was one of the three pipers selected to play for the Commandant's Change of Command Ceremony at Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D.C. on June 1, 2018. For the USCGPB I serve as Assistant Regional Coordinator for the 5th District.

My arrangements and original compositions for the Great Highland Bagpipe can be found in the repertoire of pipe bands worldwide, and two of my jigs and a hornpipe are published in the Toneczar Collection, Volume 1. I am the creator of Bagpipe Bootcamp, a three-part bagpipe instruction course that brings a piper from the very beginnings of music reading and fingering technique on the practice chanter through performing Scottish, Irish and other traditional tunes on the full bagpipes. The first part of this course, “A” to “Amazing Grace” in 8 Weeks, enables beginners of all ages to learn the basics of bagpipe music in just fifteen minutes a day, and this course may be take via Skype.

I graduated from Temple University summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Music in Education and earned a Master of Arts in Instrumental Conducting from Trenton State College (now The College of New Jersey), graduating with a 4.0 average. I taught instrumental music in New Jersey public schools for several years before working as a machinist for MacLellan Bagpipes, formerly of Lakewood, NJ.  In 2006 I earned a Juris Doctorate with honors from Rutgers School of Law – Camden. After I closed my law practice I took a position with a web design and marketing company called Sagapixel, where I worked on content and marketing for our attorney and law firm clients.

I am also a long-time freelance trumpet player, having worked my way through college playing in the casinos in Atlantic City, NJ and touring with various musical acts. Today I can be heard playing trumpet in community and regional theater pit orchestras as well as in area churches as a soloist and with my brass quartet.