Archive

Alastair Donaghy of Beragh, Northern Ireland, won the overall trophy in the A-Grade piping after a tie with James Frazer was broken by the Piobaireachd result, and Dublin’s Stephen Creighton won the aggregate A-Grade snare drumming trophy at the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association Northern Ireland Branch presented the Ulster Solo Piping & Drumming Championships at Cookstown High School. 

The annual solo piping competition run by the Scottish Pipers Association was held at the National Piping Centre, and it was Angus MacPhee of Inverness, Scotland, who won the Donald MacLean Trophy for the overall championship across the top-level events. Brodie Watson-Massey of Edinburgh won both the Piobaireachd and 6/8 March events for those graded Premier or A by the Competing Pipers Association, and Gordon McReady of Renfrew, Scotland won the MSR for previous winners of the Premier / A-Grade March and Strathspey & Reel.

For almost 50 years, the Chatsworth Country Fair just south of the southern Scottish border has been one of the best-kept secrets among Scottish solo pipers who quietly jump down to have a go at the excellent prize money. Now, the event is introducing the All-England Championships, which will be […]

Only about nine months after the initiative was launched, the National Piping Centre is hoping to expand its Maket Collective by adding designated “ambassadors” to help “promote and amplify the voice and talent of influential female musicians through their stories and performances, allowing everyone, especially other women and girls in […]

If associations want to “further the art,” they might want to embrace and provide value for new and existing members who don’t want the pressures, time, and expense of competing. It could be a matter of their very survival.

The final part of our May 1993 discussion with the late forthright, erudite and musically courageous piper. If you can only read one thing this year, make it this, perhaps the most outspoken and frank full-length interview of the nearly 100 we’ve done so far.

The first annual Manitoba Scottish Festival, organized by the Prairie Pipe Band Association of Manitoba, occurred at RRC Polytech. Macalester College and Andrew Lewis of St. Paul, Minnesota, won the top contested band and solo events. The Piper of the Day trophy was awarded to Jane Borne, and Benjamin Robins received the Drummer of the Day prize.

Jenny Hazzard and Colin MacLellan judged all the piping, and Mark Passmore and Kahlil Cappucino handled the snare and mid-section assessments, and, ultimately, it was Erin Bell of Ottawa who was the big pipng winner, taking the A Level Knockout and placing second in the Senior level Piobaireachd event, which Ottawa’s J.S. Gamache won.

Hot on the heels of winning the Scottish Solo Snare Championship, Kerr McQuillan of Peoples Ford Boghall & Bathgate Caledonia won the 2025 RSPBA European Solo Snare Drumming Championship, organized by the RSPBA’s Dundee Perth & Angus Branch and Kingdom Thistle Pipe Band Supplies.

teven Shedden, leading-drummer for Grade 1 Hawthorn of Melbourne, Australia, was the overall winner of the Oceania Solo Snare Drumming Championships, and Auckland & District Leading-Drummer Douglas Bilsland won the RSPBA’s MSR, in which the first four finishers qualify to compete in the semi-final of the World Solo Snare Drumming Championship in Glasgow this October.

CLASP’s first online practice chanter competition was an extensive four-event project. The early piping talent of Eve de Jong from the Netherlands won the aggregate prize and a Session Practice Chanter from sponsors ES Session Chanters.

Although New Zealand’s geography and population are relatively small, with its five actively competing Grade 1 bands, the country is eclipsed only by Scotland and Northern Ireland regarding depth of piping and drumming talent per capita, largely due to a strong commitment to teaching. The six-band City of Invercargill organization […]

The 2025 edition of the National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland will take the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall stage on Saturday, April 19th. 87 pipers and drummers ages 10 to 25 will showcase the music they’ve worked on since first meeting last October. The group has announced discounted ticket prices […]

While the hundred or so pipers who pursue such endeavours are still refining their 2025 tunes, the Piobaireachd Society has announced its annual recommendations and requirements for the world’s most significant ceòl mòr events of 2026, giving them 15 months to prepare. Approximately 60 pipers are accepted to compete in […]

Angus D. MacColl was the overall winner of the 2025 Pipe-Major Donald MacLeod Memorial Invitational Solo Piping Competition, held once again at the Caladh Inn to an enthusiastic crowd.

Kerr McQuillan received two first places from thre two judges to win the 2025 Scottish Solo Snare Drumming Championship held at Inveralmond Community High School and organized by the Lothian & Borders Branch o0f the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association.