15th annual Balmoral Classic going online
The Balmoral School of Piping & Drumming, located in Pittsburgh, will be holding its 15th annual Balmoral Classic US Junior Solo Piping & Drumming Championships online this November, with invited competitors submitting pre-recorded videos of their best performances to a panel of judges to assess at their leisure.
Billing itself as “the only junior solo competition for both pipers and drummers in the USA,” the organizers are taking a novel approach by providing contestants with a workshop on how to maximize their recordings, which for most online competitions range from studio-quality professionally edited video to shaky files captured on a phone.
“We provided both winter and summer workshops in our second year of online instruction, with classes taught by world-class instructors,” says Balmoral Director George Balderose. “This fall, we’ll be presenting our second online Balmoral Classic, fulfilling our promise to cultivate musical excellence in young pipers and drummers.”
To be considered for an invitation, young pipers and drummers need to apply before 23:59 Hawaii–Aleutian Time, or five hours past 11:59 EDT, October 13th. Invitations will be issue on October 17th.
Competition videos will be streamed on Facebook and YouTube on November 13th, with awards announced later on Zoom.
There will be a free workshop on November 14th, with instructors still to be announced, as are judges for the competitions.
McCallum Bagpipes are donating a set of MacRae SL4 pipes as a prize for the Balmoral Classic’s top winning piper.
David Stulpner of Perth, Australia, and Thomas Carruthers of Canberra, Australia, were the respective overall winners of the piping and snare drumming events at the 2020 Balmoral Classic US Junior Solo Piping & Drumming Championships, also held online.
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