Alberta scene reaching new heights with three new Grade 2 bands

as pipe-major. Armstrong was a member of the Grade 2 Niagara Police and Alberta Caledonia and competed with the Grade 1 Los Angeles Scots over the last few years.

Former LA Scots and Alberta Caledonia piper Rob McRae is pipe-sergeant, and Leading-Drummer Michael Hansen is running the band’s back end. North Stratton is already planning to compete at the 2015 World Pipe Band Championships, even though practices have not yet started. The group said that it has a roster so far of 25 pipers, seven snares and a bass-section of five, and has secured a “relationship” with R.G. Hardie & Co. that includes the band being outfitted with new uniforms and a kilt with the “North Stratton,” and playing Hardie chanters.

The re-established Grade 2 Viscount Park, also based in Edmonton, will have a new pipe-major in David Trew, after former pipe-major Katie Buckland had to move to Canada’s east coast. Trew was pipe-major before, while Jonathan Grady take the pipe-sergeant position, and Leading-Drummer Aaron Carter continuing to lead a strong drum corps.

Among Viscount Park’s highlights in 2014 was a trip to the Lorient Inter-Celtic Music Festival in Brittany, France, where the band finished second in both the Medley and MSR to the Grade 1 Bagad Cap Caval, beating Bagad Brieg just before Brieg won Grade 2 at the World’s.

Viscount Park is also planning to hit all regional contests and the North American Pipe Band Championships.

The Alberta resurgence is in contrast to areas like New Brunswick, Canada, where the Grade 2 Fredericton Society of St. Andrew Pipe Band has reportedly fallen on challenging times, with Pipe-Major Derick Wilson resigning and the exit of other key members. According to a source close to the band, “there has been a solid group of key members that have decided to leave the Grade 2 band recently . . . it’s not an ideal situation.”