Alina

Performing & Teaching

Alina has hosted many sessions over the years, and played in a number of bands including Avalanche, TuneStation, the Starry Plough Céilí Band, Strand, CaliCeltic, and most recently, Ceo

Alina has performed at various festivals up and down the West Coast, including the Fairfax Irish Feis (CA), the Festival of the Sea (CA), the Marin Irish Festival (CA), the Summer Arts and Music Festival (CA), the Cascade Celtic Festival (WA) the Bellingham Celtic Festival (WA), and is looking forward to playing at the Corvallis Celtic Festival (OR) for the first time this year!

Alina has done some tune-teaching on a casual basis in the past, and some sporadic on-demand lessons, but generally doesn't put herself out there as a teacher. However, if you'd like to learn some pipes or whistle technique, she'd be happy to help! Alina will be teaching a workshop on uilleann piping at the upcoming Corvallis Celtic Festival (no pipes required – an interest in the instrument and Irish music is all you need!)

Alina's Musical Background

Alina started playing the uilleann pipes in May 2020 after finishing her doctoral research in Psychology and traveling to Scotland and Ireland.  She has been playing pipes every day since! Every 3rd Thursday, she posts a video celebrating another month of daily piping practice on her Instagram page, alina_uilleanna.

Before the pipes, she played whistles, hurdy gurdy, guitar, violin. Pretty much any instrument she could get her hands on . . . She also sang in her college choirs – both the Women's Chorus and The Community Chorale – and continued singing for some time with the Oakland-based Bay Area Classical Harmonies (BACH Chorus).

Alina first came to the music through dance, bringing a whistle to the Starry Plough and sitting in on the céilí band in 2013, before she even knew what an Irish session was. Finding a welcoming community of musicians through her local sessions in Berkeley and Santa Cruz helped to further ignite her passion for the music!

Alina also has a long history with dance, and would teach and DJ dances as a board member for East Bay Waltz (and occasionally do other things, such as logo design). For a time, she was on the Starry Plough Céilí Committee, after co-founding Céilí Without Ceilings, a casual outdoor Irish dance picnic. You'll frequently find her playing for dances at the Plough and Stars and other locations in SF, as well as at the Starry Plough in Berkeley . . .

She currently works part-time for the Lark in the Morning Music Store (constructing newsletters and writing articles for the website). You can sometimes find her working the Lark Store booth at Lark Camp in the summertime.

Alina has also recently stepped into the role of board member for the San Francisco Folk Music Club (SFFMC). She has been doing some social media work and manages the SFFMC Instagram page. She performs and leads sessions and workshops at various musical gatherings that the club puts on throughout the year.

In her spare time, Alina enjoys illustrating, attending sessions, and transcribing tunes  ^__^

Some Fun Facts about Alina

• Alina took her first steps to polkas being played by a live band in Austria (after throwing her best dance shoes overboard while on a boat near where she was living in Lausanne, Switzerland)

• Alina sailed a boat before she learned to drive a car, and has gone on multiple sailing trips with her grandparents over the years (to the British Virgin Islands, and later St Vincent and the Grenadines)

• Alina has a black belt in the Korean martial art Kuk Sool Won. She has since studied other related art forms, such as Aikido, which roughly translates the way of harmony . . . more her speed!

• Alina has studied a number of languages in school, such as French and Russian (studying abroad in Vladivostok in 2011)

• Alina double-majored in Psychology + Foreign Languages in college, then did research in Psycholinguistics in grad school (& taught a class on the subject)

• Alina tried to teach herself Irish as a child, but was discouraged by someone telling her it was a "dead language" and has only recently started to get back into learning – but she could use a practice buddy or two!

• In 2024, Alina was offered a position as a researcher at the National Robotarium of Scotland, located in Edinburgh, where she worked for the better part of a year (hosting and attending sessions by night)

• Alina's parents both changed their last names when they married, but Ward is her paternal surname, which is Nic an Bháird in Irish. Literal translation: "Daughter of the Bard"

Some Irish Family History

Genealogical research from Alina's late paternal grandfather Roderic Ward mentions Scottish ancestors (the McQueens of Alloa) who emigrated to Ireland after increased tariffs on the sale of whisky forced them to relocate the family business to Ireland.

Unfortunately, they arrived just as the potato famine was about to start. Some of them chose to find greener pastures in New York state . . . but others were less fortunate. Quoting her grandfather’s archives:

“Tombstone inscription, St. Patrick’s Churchyard, Marlfield, Tipperary, Ireland. The Burial Place of James McQueen of Alloa Scotland Who Died at Marlfield 24th February 1847 Aged 57 Years. Also His Daughter Martha Died July 25th 1847 Aged 19 Years and Mary Died Nover 7th 1848 Aged 23 Years. Note: the dates on the tombstone tell the tragedy of the Irish Famine years on the population of Ireland. The widespread starvation brought on diseases that affected the general population. Even well-off families like the McQueens were stricken.”

James McQueen, although Scottish, was clearly a valued member of his community when he passed away in Tipperary, as the following poem was written for him upon his passing...

"Lines on the Death of James McQueen of Marlfield, Ireland Composed by a Poor Woman"

Oh! who will ever compensate 

The poor for such a valued loss! 

He would adorn a high estate 

And valued not, this world's dross.

For here the good employer shone, 

The worthy father, faithful guide, 

Not to his family alone! 

He was the poor man's joy and pride.

Alina is also descended from the Forsyths of Artikelly, in Northern Ireland: "Robert Forsyth was born around 1775 in Artikelly, County Londonderry, Ireland, and likely was forced to leave Ireland or face execution for involvement in Irish Rebellions, likely with Theobald Wolfe Tone and the United Irishmen in 1798” 

Another letter from the family archives indicates that “Robert Forsyth went to America, died there, and left a wife and children in Ireland.”  Perhaps one day we'll find out more! Robert’s son (and Alina's 4x-great-grandfather) John Robert Forsyth kept a detailed account (100+ pages of concise notes) detailing his travels by wagon from Illinois to California as a 49er during the Gold Rush.