(Updated) Alberta Caledonia makes leadership change

The Grade 1 Alberta Caledonia Pipe Band has made a leadership change after incumbent Pipe-Major Alex MacIntyre stepped down. The new Pipe-Major is Jamie Gattinger, who served as Pipe-Sergeant under MacIntyre.

MacIntyre will apparently take a leave of absence from the band.

We have also learned that Neil Dickie, a piper with the band, has left. According to Pipe-Major Terry Lee, Dickie has re-joined the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band, a group Dickie played with for many years in the 1980s, and for which he currently emcees concert performances.

According to sources, a division apparently developed in the band between players from the Calgary area and those from the now defunct Grade 1 Edmonton Caledonia Pipe Band. MacIntyre and Dickie served with Edmonton.

According to Daniel Lidgren, a piper currently with the band, “There was no hostile takeover.”

Gattinger is considered to have strong abilities for establishing tone in the pipe section. Dickie apparently played a prominent role in developing the band’s music.

After qualifying for the final round of the 2001 World Pipe Band Championship, Alberta Caledonia competed at the World’s in 2002 and 2003, but did not make the final in either year. The band finished eighth in the Grade 1 World’s qualifier in 2003.

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