Celtic Connections Features ‘Piping Day’

“Piping Day” at the annual three-week Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow was held on January 26 with a series of performances at the elegant Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.

Highlights of the day included separate performances by the ScottishPower and Field Marshal Montgomery pipe bands. The ScottishPower concert featured, among other things, the debut of new members Ian Duncan, former Pipe-Major of the Vale Atholl Pipe Band, and renowned soloist and composer Gordon Duncan.

Celebrated solo pipers also performed at the event. Gordon Walker, also a ScottishPower member, performed a solo selection that one attendee described as “amazing.” Willie McCallum of Bearsden and 2001 winner of the Glenfiddich Piping Championships, executed a “perfect” performance to a packed house.

The Field Marshal Montgomery Pipe Band of Belfast, picked by many as early favourites to win the 2002 World Pipe Band Championships, were reportedly in fine form, but decided to withhold new material until the 2002 season.

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