Michel d’Avenas is the Piper Major of the Monterey Bay Pipe Band and the leading bagpipe instructor in Monterey County.

He is a piping competition judge at Scottish Festivals and other events, and founder of the Monterey Celtic Arts Academy and The Monterey Bay School of Piping and Drumming. Michel plays a classic set of Great Highland bagpipes mounted in ivory with silver and African Blackwood drones and manufactured by William Sinclair & Sons of Edinburgh, Scotland. Michel is often seen playing at sundown at the Inn at Spanish Bay in Pebble Beach.

A Monterey County native, Michel’s musical family came from both Great Britiain and France. After graduating from RLS, he served in the U.S. Army European Command Honor Guard. He then studied music theory and composition at U.C. Berkeley, and learned from renowned bagpipe players such as Seumas MacNeil, Ian MacFadyen, John Burgess, Archie Cairns, Jimmy MacColl, and Jack Lee.

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