Andy Rogers awarded King Charles III Coronation Medal for music, community service

Rogers teaches and runs the music program at Connaught Street School for students from kindergarten to Grade 5, including the concert band and the school’s choir.

The King Charles III Coronation Medal was created in 2023 and awarded to 30,000 people who contributed significantly to their communities. Federal Canadian Senator Nancy Hartling of New Brunswick nominated Rogers based on support from those who know his work.

“I tell my music students all of the time that they never know where music will take them – the people they’ll meet, the adventures that they will experience.” – Andy Rogers

“Getting this was really special,” Rogers said. “It was neat that my students and their parents saw it. I tell my music students all of the time that they never know where music will take them – the people they’ll meet, the adventures that they will experience. I have had a number of students continue on with the concert band instruments that I introduced to them. Over the years, I have used my teacher working conditions fund to buy a class set of plastic John Walsh practice chanters.”

Rogers also received the Queen Elizabeth Platinum Jubilee Medal for piping in 2023.

Andy Rogers is well known to pipers and drummers worldwide and is most famous in the Canadian Maritimes. He’s a member of the Fredericton Society of St. Andrew Pipe Band, and in the past, played with the Grade 1 78th Highlanders (Halifax Citadel) and, in 2008, with Spirit of Scotland in that group’s week-long project to gather available all-star players to compete only at the World Championships.

He has a long career of solo competition success, highlighted by winning the 2001 Silver Medal at the Argyllshire Gathering, the 2011 Piobaireachd Society (Canada) Gold Medal at Maxville, Ontario, and the Livingstone Invitational in Hamilton, Ontario.

He received the award before the concert band’s annual holiday concert. After the surprise, he gathered himself and launched the band into the show.

“Our music curriculum has changed in our school district,” Rogers added. “We are known for a more ‘holistic’ approach to education. I took the opportunity to ‘sneak’ the chanters into the classroom. The kids love them. They are different and the kids think that they have a ‘cool factor.’ Who knows what will happen. I am very fortunate.”