Young CV Drummer Plays in French Celtic Heritage Festival
Castro Valley drummer Shaelyn Mosbaugh just returned from playing in a Celtic Heritage Festival in France. She is a member of the Prince Charles Pipe Band.
19-year-old Castro Valley percussionist Shaelyn Mosbaugh just returned from two weeks touring in France with an impressive musical group—the Prince Charles Pipe Band. Sponsored by the Caledonian Club of San Francisco, the band showcases Scottish bagpipes, drums, and of course, kilts.
"We were invited for two weeks in August to the Celtic Heritage Festival in Lorient, France. We did six stadium shows at night, and one was actually broadcast on French national TV. That was really exciting,” Mosbaugh says. “We did a bunch of parades through town and ferried to a "Battle of the Bands" competition. It was so much fun.”
The Celtic Heritage Festival (Festival Interceltique de Lorient) is an annual event held in Lorient, a seaport town some 310 miles southwest of Paris.
Mosbaugh began her drumming career at Proctor Elementary School in fourth grade. She continued all the way up through her Castro Valley High School graduation in 2021. During those years she played percussion in the school bands.
“It’s just fun for me,” she says. “Everyone has that one thing that they enjoy and are good at, and mine is music. What’s great about percussion is you get to learn a bunch of different instruments. I grew up going to Renaissance Faires and the Scottish Games. One time I was watching the pipe band and I turned to my parents and said, ‘I want to do that!’ “
She joined the Prince Charles Pipe Band seven years ago, in sixth grade. During those years the band has been growing and adding more young people. Bagpipes are not taught in most school music programs, so bands like these offer opportunities to learn.
“I would encourage people to look into pipe bands,” says Mosbaugh, who plays the snare drum. “It’s fun and you get to meet a lot of great people. There are tons of pipe bands all over California.”
The Prince Charles Pipe Band began in 1967, to train young pipers and drummers in the Bay Area. In addition to the festival in France, the Prince Charles Pipe Band has marched in our Rowell Ranch Rodeo parade. And over the Labor Day weekend, they played at the popular Scottish Highland Gathering and Games at the Alameda County fairgrounds. There they took first place in their division and scored first in every category. Several members placed in their solo competitions, including a third-place solo for Mosbaugh.
When she’s not drumming, Mosbaugh is enrolled at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills.
"I looked around locally and found out that they have an excellent two-year veterinary technician program. I stack my classes, so I only have to drive over there two days a week,” she says.
The Prince Charles Pipe Band is the longest-running active instructional youth pipe and drum band on the west coast. More information on the Band can be found at pcpb.org.