Born in Prince Albert, Ken grew up in Waskesiu, Jasper, Banff, Ottawa, Cornwall, and Calgary, sang in church and school choirs, and learned music theory in Grades 7 and 8 at Queen Elizabeth Junior High in Ottawa. He started playing French Horn in Grade 9, and finished Grade 12 in Calgary as first horn with the William Aberhart High School band.

He gave up the horn in favour of studies in chemistry, biology, math, and environmental science at the University of Calgary, but took up whistle on a bamboo instrument while hitch-hiking around Europe one summer.

Back in Calgary, he was inspired by bands such as the Chieftains, the Tannahill Weavers, Tamarack, the Boys of the Lough, the Battlefield Band, and the Friends of Fiddler’s Green to learn mostly Irish and Scottish tunes on the whistle, and played with the band Conor’s Revenge in and around Calgary.

He was invited to teach whistle, and later guitar, for the Calgary Public School Board’s adult education program, which led to a career teaching public school, and while working on his education degree at UBC, he joined the Scandinavian Dancers of Vancouver, and played whistle and guitar in their dance band. While teaching school in northern BC, he joined the band Talisker (named after the only distillery on the Isle of Skye), and having retired back in Calgary, he plays whistle, guitar, and piano with the Prairie Mountain Fiddlers, and is working on bagpipes with the St Andrew-Caledonian Society of Calgary.

Let’s let the whistle take us on a little trip through time and space, using music alone so as to minimize our carbon footprint. We’ll visit our friend Wolfgang Amadeus in Vienna, then off to Ireland, Scotland, and Scandinavia. Then it’s back over the pond for some Canadian fiddle tunes, a bit of movie music, and maybe a side trip to South America. We’ll finish back in Scotland where they’ll still be celebrating the new year! -KP