Tara Penny

CHARLESTON Pipe band

Tara started taking bagpipe lessons in 1996 when she had just gone back to work at Verizon (where she worked for 31 years as a Central Office Technician) after having her second child and she decided she needed a hobby, of all things! How and where did a busy working Mom find the time and place to practice? She had the night shift and she would practice in the buildings she serviced as she made her rounds!

Tara played with the Wantagh Pipe Band in New York until she and her husband Joe retired and relocated to South Carolina in 2014. Tara first made contact with the Charleston Pipe Band when she was at the Stone Mountain Games watching her son Ethan compete with the Citadel Pipe Band. Tara spoke with CPB band member John Weed and he made her feel so comfortable that she really wanted to be a part of such a great group!

Instrument playing is a tradition in Tara’s family. As a child, she played the cello, clarinet, and percussion instruments. Both her children, Ethan and Emma, play the pipes and played with Tara in the Wantagh Pipe Band. She and her husband, who is always there to cheer on his piping family members, got to watch son Ethan play with The Citadel Band at the Edinburgh Tattoo in 2015 and they get to watch daughter Emma play with the Irish Pipers of San Francisco and son Ethan play with the Roisin Dubh Pipe Band in New York.

Tara says, “My favorite gig we do is Hilton Head St Patrick’s Day Parade because I get to spend the whole day (driving to the parade and home with my favorite band members) plus hanging out with the whole band and meeting other bands and playing with them at Reiily’s Pub after the parade.”

Tara fondly remembers the whole family being together for the 2015 Edinburgh Tattoo and taking the train to Glasgow where they met up with some of their Wantagh Pipe Band bandmates from New York and watched the World Bagpipe Championship together.