Balmoral School to Zoom this summer

Visas, work permits or even vacation time won’t be an issue for instructors or students attending the 2020 Balmoral School of Piping & Drumming as the forty-first annual summer school sessions will go all online in the wake of coronavirus travel and gathering concerns and restrictions.

On tap to teach are famous piping and drumming personalities Gordon Bell, Bruce Gandy, Robert Mathieson and Terry Tully.

According to school organizers, the online classes will be of five or fewer, and technical assistance will be available for anyone needing help with Zoom. The school is also planning several online social hours where students can discuss topics related to piping and drumming, or get to know each other.

“A big part of the Balmoral experience is our community,” they said in a statement. “Even in our virtual schools, we will allow our students to network, as well as to make friends who share a common interest in piping and drumming.”

The “Summer Zoom” sessions run in two separate weeks, July 5-10 and July 12-17. New pricing had not been determined at publication time.

The Balmoral Schools started in 1979 and have been run every year in the Pittsburgh area. Last week, British Columbia’s Piping Hot Summer Drummer also announced that it would go ahead in an all-online format.

Rather than go with an online solution, the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association elected to cancel its July summer school outright, The event was to have been held in the organization’s newly refurbished headquarters.

Related

Piping Hot Summer Drummer goes online worldwide with July summer school

 April 26, 2020