Commission a piece?
Would you like to have a piece composed for that special someone, occasion or ceremony? Browse the various pieces you like and feel free to inquire about commissioning John to compose something new specially for you. Here are some testimonials for the simpler compositions:
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"In preparation for our festival to mark the part that Balfron Redicals played in the Scottish Insurrection our group approached John Dew to create a piece commemorating the ill-fated 'Battle of Bonnymuir'. John was fastidious in his research and meticulous in his composing as well as being flexible and very easy to work with. This resulted in an extremely moving piece of music and we would not hesitate to contact this talented young composer again" - Jim Thomson, PP Balfron Heritage Group.
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"We commissioned a tune from John for a family member’s first birthday. He wrote the tune well before the deadline, and the tune that he wrote was fantastic, and far exceeded all of our expectations" - Connor Jardine
“I enthusiastically recommend John as a commissioned composer of bagpipes tunes. I live in Hawaii, and our pipe band plays a number of Hawaiian tunes that have been transposed for bagpipes, but there were no Hawaiian tunes written for the bagpipe until now. I reached out to John to inquire about composing a tune for Hawaii, and he wholeheartedly accepted the challenge. To begin the process, I sent him a number of files of Hawaiian music and bagpipe renditions of some of them. John listened to them and did his own research, and the composition that John created is short order is a masterpiece. I do not know how he did it, other than having tremendous skill, creativity, and musical training, but his composition captures the spirit and essence of Hawaii, and I believe it will become a classic. I named the tune “Lokomaika‛i” which loosely means “be kind to each other” in Hawaiian. Sometimes Amazing Grace is called Lokomaika‛i in Hawaii, but now we have our own tune by that name. This title and meaning resonate with the tune, as it is deep and soulful, especially during this time of the pandemic. John also wrote separate parts for a bagpipe trio, and for a brass and pipe bands. I am so looking forward to playing this with my band mates, and also playing the trombone part. John is also a super nice guy, very responsive, and easy to work with. You will never regret commissioning John for a composition of any kind.” Gregory Kim
"I was looking for a Scottish pipe tune and had quite a few requests that were, a-bit-out-there. I wasn't even sure if it was possible to make my idea happen, but John delivered a fantastic piece of of music. Not only that, but he composed the reel very quickly and with great customer service" - Lauren Baures