Kerr McQuillan: a chat with the 2023 World Solo Snare Drumming Champion – Part 1

To say Kerr McQuillan has had a great year would be a considerable understatement.

In 2023, since taking on the leading-drummer role with Grade 1 Peoples Ford Boghall & Bathgate Caledonia of Bathgate, Scotland, he’s already achieved things at age 19 that only very few musicians have in a lifetime.

Start with winning the UK Pipe Band Championship in June – the first time the band had attained that title. Follow that with high prizes at the next two major championships, and then, of course, achieving the 2023 World Pipe Band Championship at Glasgow Green on August 19th, the first time in Boghall & Bathgate Caledonia’s 50-year history that they captured the big prize.

But that’s not all. On October 21st, McQuillan won the World Solo Snare Drumming Championship in Glasgow. It wasn’t only his first time winning the biggest individual prize in pipe band drumming; it was his first time even competing in the adult section of the event. By all accounts, he is the youngest ever to win the award – by at least three years.

All that is hard for even the ultra-talented and confident McQuillan to have imagined when we got together with him and Peoples Ford Boghall & Bathgate Caledonia Pipe-Major Ross Harvey last February:

[Family & Community: P-M Ross Harvey and L-D Kerr McQuillan of Peoples Ford Boghall & Bathgate Caledonia]

A few days after the awesome reality of World Solo Championship achievement had set in, we connected with Kerr McQuillan to share his experience and memories of the event with pipes|drummers followers.

Here’s the first in our two-part chat with Kerr McQuillan: 2023 World Solo Drumming and World Pipe Band Champion.