When someone reaches out to Jackie Lewis because they’re interested in learning how to play the bagpipes, the 41-year-old from Georgia, Vermont, starts with a warning.

“I've played a lot of other instruments — and this one's by far the hardest,” she tells them. Songs must be played from memory; the instrument is physically demanding, and the pipes’ many intricate parts are temperamental and in constant need of adjustment.

But it’s that challenge, she said, that makes it so rewarding.

“It's a forever fight, but it's worth it in the end,” said Lewis, who has been playing since she was 15.

Last week, Lewis received a rare reward: She and Hazen Metro, a fellow Vermonter and member of Montpelier’s Catamount Pipe Band, competed at the World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow, Scotland. Both

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