THE PIPER OF LAS OLAS
Bagpiper’s daily practice sessions serenade Fort Lauderdale passers-by
Almost every day, around dusk, Roger Loth steps out onto his Fort Lauderdale dock with his bagpipes.
Wearing a green-andblack kilt, the 69-year-old plays his heart out while the Intracoastal breezes carry the notes of tunes like “Amazing Grace” and “Scotland the Brave” across the Las Olas Bridge and beyond.
Loth is the piper of Las Olas. And his practice sessions have become must-hear performances for some bridge and boat passers-by who clap, wave to him or just simply enjoy the melodies. Yacht and water taxi captains have been known to slow down to take in his
music.
“It’s a combination of entertainment for me and entertainment for people on the bridge,” he said, after puffing into his pipes during a recent session on his dock. “I could almost imagine God sitting up on a cloud, looking over and listening and, hopefully, approving of what I am playing.”
The professional real estate and personal property auctioneer said he wants to convey a dose of spirituality with his pipes.
“It’s a small ministry for me, a spiritual experience,” he said. “We’ve all been down in our lives and, at times, we need a little push. I’m hoping that just a simple tune will do that for people.
“I want to uplift people with my bagpipes.”
Loth isn’t Scottish and didn’t start playing the bagpipes until adulthood in his native Ohio, shortly before moving to Fort Lauderdale in 1998.
Music has always been a part of his life. Throughout his Irish-American childhood in Cincinnati, his parents encouraged him to play an instrument. He started with the accordion, moved on to the piano and eventually the guitar in high school.
Finally, a curiosity for the bagpipes led him to begin playing privately in the backyard of his Cincinnati estate, which was next to an all-girls Catholic school. He remembers the neighboring nuns stepping onto their patio to listen to him play. For one of their school benefit auctions, he offered to perform “Amazing Grace.”
“I was so scared. I had never performed in public. My knees were knocking,” Loth recalled about the crowd of 400 at the auction event. “I rocked the house, and it was a good feeling. It was a good start.”
Loth then began performing publicly. When he moved to South Florida, he
wanted to continue pursuing that passion. He’s a member of The Celtic Dreams Band, a four-person group of pipers that performs in community and private events. He says he enjoys seeing the reactions from children when they hear him play the pipes.
“Their eyes are as big saucers and their wonderment, that sound intrigues children,” he said, with a smile.
Whether solo or with his band, he’s performed at weddings, quinceañera parties, senior community complexes and funerals.
Loth also has played during ceremonial services as a volunteer piper for groups such as the Miami Beach Police Honor Guard.
But it’s on his dock where he shows off his pipe skills the most. The piercing sound of the pipes, akin to a cruise ship’s blowpipes or a diesel truck’s horn, reverberates along the Intracoastal.
“I feel like I’m in Scotland,” said Loth’s next-door neighbor, Pam White, who also used to hear his pipe playing when she lived in a high-rise across the Intracoastal. “It’s enjoyable. It’s fun to hear.”
Nelson Tetreault, one of the ferry captains for Fort Lauderdale’s Water Taxi, said he sometimes brings the boat close to Loth’s dock to entertain passengers.
“He plays very well,” he said. “We go right by him, 50 feet away from him when he plays. Sometimes, we stop the water taxi and let people listen. It’s a nice treat for people in the water taxi.”
Loth said he’s just happy to play, whether he has a bridge or boat crowd or not. He enjoys the haunting and soothing sounds and sharing that with anyone willing to listen.
“It is haunting, mournful, ethereal perhaps, breathy. Even though ‘Amazing Grace’ is associated with sadness, it’s still just stirring. ... I want people to pay attention and recognize bagpipes, appreciate what they are and what they can do.”