Carols & Kilts 2019 at Shongweni Farmers Market

Melissa and Samantha have competed with great success at the highest level in both Irish and Highland dancing. They both hold an international Irish dance teaching qualification.  Dancing together as Celtic Heartbeat, they have performed in many productions, including Last Night of the Proms in Durban, Pietermaritzburg and Johannesburg, and the well-known proudly-Durban show Shall We Dance.

The twins have performed together with the pipe band at concerts, ceilidhs, highland gatherings and even weddings, but a highlight we look forward to each year is their regular feature at Carols & Kilts.

Keely Crocker, singer/songwriter and performer is a 17-year-old grade 11 learner at Kingsway High School. Her dream is to pursue a career in Performing Arts and have her own record label one day.

Since winning her first singing competion at the age of 9, Keely's list of musical accomplishments has grown quite staggering.  One of her biggest achievements was being selected (twice!) for the Federation of Performing Arts SA Team competing in New York where she has placed first in her age group in multiple categories.

Within South Africa she has been cast in numerous shows, for example earlier this year as one of the leads in Curtain Up at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre, and has opened for or sung with well-known artists including Ard Mathews (Just Jinger) and Louise Carver.  She has done exceptionally well in a number of performance contests, and was crowned Miss KZN Face of Talent 2019 with a clean-sweep of gold places for singing and acting.

Keely has starred in many a school musical, and in 2020 she will be co-producing Kingsway High School's annual musical, as well as sharing her prodigious experience in the roles of acting and vocal coach for the show.

Keely and Durban Callies Pipe Band go way back - it isn't easy to sing accompanied by a pipe band, but Keely does an excellent job each year at the closing ceremony of the South Coast Highland Gathering held in Amanzimtoti, and has taken part in several iterations of Carols & Kilts with us before.

Bernard Kisbey-Green has been a professional musician since 1985, as a performer with the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra, and as a music teacher and performer in the Midlands and Pietermaritzburg area. He was a valuable snare drummer in the Durban Callies Pipe Band (by another name) for about 10 years, and is currently an active member of the PMB Callies Pipe Band.

Bernard and his daughter Chelsea have both participated in previous editions of Carols & Kilts and other concerts with the band, but this year they are joined by Conor, the youngest family member, to make up the Conch Saxophone Trio.

Chelsea excelled in music at school, and also performed with the Pietermartizburg City Orchestra and other concerts in PMB. She is currently studying medicine at UCT.  Conor is a pupil at Maritzburg College, and has been playing the saxophone for two years. He is a member of the school Jazz Band and Choir, and participates fully in the cultural life of the school.

This concert marks the debut performance of the Conch Trio.

Veteran musician Nick Mowbray started playing nursery rhymes on the piano by ear at 4 years, started formal lessons from 7, and by the age of 12 had already fallen in with the wrong crowd and begun experimenting with risky flute, bagpipe and keyboard ensembles.  He has been accompanying the pipe band since 1999, regularly travelling all the way from Port Elizabeth to take part in our concerts and weddings.  He says this been by far the most enjoyable aspect of his musical journey.

Back home in his normal life Nick and his brother are now the 5th generation running the family business - retailing men's and school apparel, and manufacturing academic, legal, clerical and municipal attire.  His lovely wife and three children are also often seen supporting Nick and the band around the country.

Alistair is a longstanding member of the Durban Caledonian Society and a great friend to the band.  On a regular day he might be hiring out kilts and other highland regalia to the public (or to the odd bandsman who left his in Cape Town..) for weddings and events, or taking part in the North Beach park run.  Once or twice a year, however, he dons his gear, walks out on stage, and performs the immortal poetry of Rabbie Burns to a fresh, warm, delicious haggis.

It also happens that the band proudly wears the tartan of Alistair's clan - the deep blue and green of MacKenzie.