Hi!

I'm Nathan Wahlgren. I play bagpipes, teach bagpipes, and think about bagpipes a lot. Sometimes I do other things, too. 

My core beliefs:

1. Humans should be decent to one another

2. The book is (almost) always better than the movie

3. The toiler paper should go over the top of the roll

• Origins: US east coast
• Current residence: Fort Collins, CO, USA 
• Age: middle
• Day job: engineer

• Instructor history 
  • Burt Mitchell
  • Lyric Todkill
  • Dan Cole
  • Jason Barth
  • Peter Kent
• First lesson: August 1998
• First performance: March 1999
• First solo competition: July 2001
• Solo competition grades 
  • 4: 2004
  • 3: 2005-2006
  • 2: 2007-2009
  • 1: 2010-present

• Virginia Military Institute Pipes and Drums, Lexington, VA, 1998-2002 (pipe major 2001-2002), noncompetitive/Grade 5
• Baltimore City Pipe Band, summer 2000, noncompetitive
• Macdonald Pipe Band, Pittsburgh, PA, 2003-2006, Grade 4
• Graham Highlanders of St. Johnsbury Academy, St. Johnsbury, VT, 2006-2008, Grade 4
• MacMillan Pipe Band, Rockville, MD, 2010-2012, Grade 3
• MacMillan-Birtles Pipe Bands, Rockville, MD, 2011, Grade 4 (playing instructor)
• Portland Metro Pipe Band, Portland, OR, 2013-2019, Grade 2
• Willamette Valley Pipes and Drums, Salem, OR, 2020-2025, noncompetitive (pipe major 2020-2024)
• Queen City Pipe Band, Denver, CO, 2026- , Grade 3
• Northern Colorado Caledonia Pipe Band, Longmont, CO, 2026- , Grade 5 (playing instructor)

I play a set of Henderson pipes from about 1949. They were purchased new for Mr. Eugene Lucas by his wife as a Christmas present, and I purchase them from him in 2006. They have simple wood mounts, nickel ferrules, and orange imitation ivory drone caps. I describe them as the Millennium Falcon of bagpipes: "She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts."

I play a Gannaway hide bag, Crozier glass fiber drone reeds, and for a solo chanter alternate between a blackwood Naill from about 1993 and a blackwood Henderson Infinity.