Biography
Liz (Payne) Tubbs learned to play the Great Highland Bagpipe as a youngster in Dunedin, a long-time Scottish community on Florida's West Coast. As she became a highly-skilled and proficient piper, playing with the City of Dunedin Pipe Band from 1972 through 1978, Liz got the attention of noted piper Sandy MacPhee, who tutored Liz in the professional ranks of pipers (read this article about Sandy).
Continuing her music education, Liz became a premier flutist and in 1976 was the Young Artist winner with the Florida Gulf Symphony. She earned her degree in music and elementary education from the University of Iowa in 1978.
Liz moved to California in 1981 and began playing with the Grade 2 Prince Charles Pipe Band in the San Francisco Bay Area, commuting from Sacramento to San Francisco several times a week. With fellow bandsman Clutch Sutton, Liz formed the City of Sacramento Pipe Band in 1989 and has served as its pipe major and musical director ever since.
In 2003 Liz took the Band to the World Championship Pipe Band competition in Glasgow, Scotland, placing in two separate contests the weekend before, and finishing in respectable fashion at the World's itself.
Liz has played for hundreds of events over the years as a solo piper, and entertained countless dignitaries and celebrities, including several performances with the pipe band for Governor Pete Wilson and as a soloist for Ireland's President Mary McAleese. She has also performed as the solo opener for famed Irish folk group The Chieftains, and twice led her band as the opening act for Rod Stewart.
She has made her mark in the American pipe band world by serving in leadership positions with the Western United States Pipe Band Association for several years, including her most recent term as President of the Northern Branch.
Liz teaches music in the Visual and Performing Arts Academy at Elk Grove's Sheldon High School, teaches band at the elementary school level in the Elk Grove Unified School District, and also teaches piping to students at her home in Herald, a small rural community in southeastern Sacramento County. Over the years Liz has started dozens of pipers on their way and her former students can be found in many pipe bands and awards lists throughout California and Western America. She is affiliated with CMEA and CBDA.
Liz's influence has rubbed off on her family - her five children are all pipers or drummers who either have or continue to play in the Band. She also taught piping to her husband who recently retired as a piper in the U.S. Army Reserve's 191st Army Band and continues as a piper in the U.S. Coast Guard Pipe Band, the California State Military Reserve, and the City of Sacramento Pipe Band..
