ARTISTS
Adrian Walter
Adrian Walter is the booking contact, drummer, dancer, and front man of Tartanic. If you let him—he’ll pick up guitars and penny whistles or a didgeridoo—but heavy medication has aided greatly to quell this urge.
Jill Anne Jack, "Fanny Lowreen McCrackin"
A former member of Celtic Menagerie, Jill Jack spent over five years performing professionally before lending her skills to this project. Now the owner and near full-time road dog, she draws her inspiration from the many cultures and areas she visits. “Life is a highway. Let’s ride.”
Ethan "McCrackin" Crownover
Ethan has played the bagpipes for 21 years and has a background in solo and band centered competition. At the age of fourteen he traveled to Scotland with the St. Thomas Episcopal School Pipe Band (STEPB) where the band won first overall in the juvenile division. Since then he has competed all over North America from the Houston highland games to the Salado Highland games and all the way to the North American Championships in Canada. Having returned to Scotland for the Worlds again in 2010 where the band received a third place, he has always looked to play the bagpipes. For funerals, weddings, charity events and especially for himself. Now he gets to do it and travel all over the states doing it and couldn't be happier.
John Edward "Jack McCrackin" Urdiales
John (Jack McCrackin) joins Tartanic from Akron, OH and has played the Great Highland Bagpipe for almost 7 years chiefly under the tutelage of Andrew Duncan. His interest in piping began in his deep Irish roots and has blossomed into traditional, folk, and contemporary music. He is also a decorated solo and band competitor, winning various top prizes in the Grade III circle and expects to do just as well in Grade II, and plays with the Grade II Great Lakes Pipe Band from Cleveland, OH and the Grade IV Alma College Pipe Band in Alma, MI.
Laureano "Thistleby McCrackin IV" Thomas-Sanchez
Laureano is from Cleveland, Ohio and began piping in 2010. Over the past 10 years they have competed with the 87th Cleveland Pipe Band, Great Lakes Pipe Band, Alma College Pipe Band and recently joined the St. Thomas Alumni Pipe Band. They now compete as a professional soloist with success across the U.S, Canada, and Scotland. Laureano is an active piping instructor and teaches at the Ohio Scottish Arts School where they first began as a student in 2011.
Gina Carli Zicchino, "Bella McCrackin"
Gina is a multi-faceted performance artist and yoga teacher who has her MFA in Dance, BA in Dance, Theater and Film studies, and 500-hour yoga teaching certification. She has taught and performed many styles of dance, acting, physical theater, and clowning nationally and internationally over the past decade and a half. (Yes, she really is a professional clown!) Gina worked as an assistant director in Hollywood and has worked at both Walt Disney World and Disneyland before finding herself in the world of renaissance festivals in 2015. Since then she has lived in her tiny camper with her husband and shapeshifted into many magical creatures, her favorite of which is a Scottish dancing Tartanic pixie of magic and shenanigans. She adores the improvisational runaway train ride of renaissance rock-n-roll that is every Tartanic show, and looks forward to many McCrackin years to come.
John E. Jaan
John E Jaan has been dancing, acting, performing, and drumming since the age of six when his Scottish grandfather (with roots from the Innes clan, whose ancestor is Berowald) gifted him a Muppet Show drum kit. His desire to play like Animal has never waned. When he was invited to play with Tartanic he pounded at the opportunity!
Chris Lorince
Chris Lorince has been playing pipes for 31 years and has played with Tartanic for the last 6 at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Festival. He is featured on the Tartanic album Universal.
Chris got his start in piping from his father and John Duxbury. For many years he played in the local grade 5 band while rising through the ranks of solo competition. In 2002, Chris joined the North Coast Pipe Band from Cleveland, Ohio, in grade 2. With North Coast, Chris has won many competitions in Ontario including the North American Championships in 2004, The Celtic Classic in Bethlehem, PA, numerous other contests in the Eastern and Midwest United States as well as a 7th place finish at the World Pipe Band Championships in grade 2 in Glasgow, Scotland.
In 2006 Chris joined the Balmoral Pipe Band from Pittsburgh, PA, and started receiving instruction from the World Famous piper James H. McIntosh, MBE. With this instruction and introduction to piobaireachd (great music), Chris was able to make the jump from grade 1 solo competition to the Professional level.
In the fall of 2010, Chris made the biggest jump of his piping career by joining the Grade 1 World Champion, 78th Fraser Highlanders Pipe Band from Ontario, Canada. While playing with Frasers, Chris won numerous contest throughout Ontario and qualified for the final at the World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow, Scotland.
Chris hails from Mount Pleasant, PA, with his wife and three daughters, where he is Mechanical Designer in his professional career.
Jessica Watson, "Eateth McCrackin"
Jessica is happy to join the McCrackin clan as Eateth. She holds her Bachelor's Degree in Theater and has 20+ years experience in dance. She has performed Internationally and excited to be touring again. She first started touring at the age of 13 with Family Theater Productions as Assistant Choreographer/Various Roles in Peter Pan. She was also Assistant Choreographer and performed in the chorus for the University of Detroit Classical Theater Program, partnered with The Athens Center, productions of The Trojan Women and The Frogs which toured Greece.
In addition she danced competitively with the Dance Electric Company, earning medals nationally in Jazz, Tap, and Musical Theater. She is a connoisseur of dark chocolate and prefers her hot cocoa with marshmallows. Her favorite foods are Chinese and Mexican, she could eat her weight in popcorn, and in her spare time enjoys crocheting and growing her over-sized stuffed animal collection.
Micah Babinski
Micah began his piping career at the age of nine in Oakland, California where he started under the instruction of Bay Area piper and drummer Liza MacAdam. Micah moved to Washington State with his family in 1998, where he continued on the pipes under the instruction of Laurie MacKenzie, and later Jori Chisholm, with whom he took lessons for many years.
As a soloist, Micah has won many competitions throughout the years, including the prestigious George Sherriff Amatuer Invitational competition in Toronto, Ontario. Micah competes actively as a professional soloist in the British Columbia Pipers Association.
In addition to Tartanic, Micah has played in several bagpipe bands, including Prince Charles of San Francisco, Simon Fraser University, and Dowco Triumph Street. He has also performed in ensembles alongside guitar-driven rock groups, fiddle players, Taiko drummers and a Balanese Gamelan.
Micah is a published bagpipe composer, and several of Micah’s compositions have been featured on albums by Tartanic, solo bagpipe recitalists, and top level bagpipe bands.
Micah moved to Portland, Oregon in 2011 where he teaches bagpipe lessons, plays recitals, and judges amateur piping contests. In addition to piping, Micah enjoys hiking, savoring Portland’s wonderful selection of food and drink, and playing the mandolin. He eagerly anticipates the arrival of a practice set of Irish Uilleann pipes in May or June of next year.
Kris Johnston, "Loosey Makoa McCrackin"
Loosey began training in classical ballet at the age of two and was accepted to West Texas A&M University on a dance scholarship at the age of 16. She has studied with Ballet Dallas, The Grand Rapids Ballet, The Corpus Christi Concert Ballet and The Lone Star Ballet. Holding a BFA in dance, she enjoys teaching at Ballet Academy of Corpus Christi, Shiny Shoes Dance and other studios as a guest teacher. She has been a guest artist with the Corpus Christi Concert Ballet and the Harbor Playhouse, is a guest performing artist with Tartanic and has been a guest choreographer for TEXAS the nation’s leading outdoor musical drama. With a Master's degree in Public Administration and Business marketing, she enjoys designing websites for small businesses and running her ranch. Loosey has studied and enjoys performing, ballet, tap, jazz, modern, ballroom and clogging and is thrilled to have found bellydance launching Incantation Bellydance in 2011.
Riz Dunmire, "Freda McCrackin"
Freda McCrackin spent eight years practicing the art of ballet in the commonwealth state of Pennsylvania, and within the past year has picked up the art of belly dancing. She has a degree in Psychology and has a very large interest for micro expressions and the works of Paul Eckman. She has hiked up the beautiful mountains of Arizona including Picket Post, Superstition, and Flat Iron. She has been professionally trained the talent of fire breathing, and proficient in the art of contact juggling.
Will Thayer, "Willie McCrackin"
It all started years ago at the Arizona Renaissance Festival when Will saw a group called Tartanic. From then on, he knew he wanted to play the pipes. Will started playing at the age of 17, and has played with several pipe bands local to Arizona. He competes in solo competitions in Arizona and California. As an international land owner, Will enjoys taking his wife and daughter to Scotland to visit their 1 square foot plot at Dunan's Castle in Argyll County which came as a gift from Will's sister. That being said, and as a technicality, his proper title is Laird William. Some of Will's other achievements include taking third at an annual sexiest knees contest, successfully creating his own business, and most importantly, recognition in the Western United States Pipe Band Association for his bagpiping skills.
Sean Malley, " Thurstin McCrackin"
Sean has been playing drums for over 20 years and has learned rhythm traditions from as many countries. He has recorded and toured with several different acts and can bring an assortment of different percussion styles to the table from Djun djuns to drum kits. He has been a part of Djilia Phralengo and is currently a member of industrial acts Servitor and iVardensphere, the former, an industrial force in Detroit and the latter, of which he has toured Europe and appears on the latest CD. When he's not causing a ruckus on drums, he spends his time tempering mentally-ill musicians and making sure they don't hit anyone. He can imagine things in 13 languages, has seen pictures of 22 different countries and has met at least 13 people with degrees from prestigious universities.
Former & Guest Artists
Micah Babinski
Andrew Beck
David Duncan
Geordie Hall
Alex Korolov
Scott Macleod
Max McDougall
Will Thayer
Mark James Varelas
Tricia Evolution Belle Storie
Richard Kean
Tom O'Brien
Stuart Clements
EJ Jones
Jeremy Freeman
Iain MacKee
Ben Peterson
Brian Dodge
Eric Boyd
Mike McNutt
Elijah Woolcott
Kyle Grasty
Lyric Todkill
Douglas MacCrae
Alex Lubrano
Kimberly Seigle
Rob McWilliam
Neil Wolmeduff
David McNally
Josiah Hamilton
Preston Murchison
David Macejka
Kevin Hartnell
Michael Huebner
Daniel Williams
Jay Kruse
Ryan McNutt
Elliott Treves
Jay Elkins
Sophia A. Balentine
Matthew Drecun
John Hanna
Michelle Loos
Ryan Proskovich
Alli Thrasher
Lyric Todkill
John (Jack) Urdiales
David "Vid" Wegner
Matthew Lawrence Campbell
David Earle Chorowski
Jake Cooper
Bennett "Ben" Holmes