Capt. John Championship gains popularity with players

In only six years, the annual Captain John A. MacLellan MBE Solo Piping Championships in Edinburgh has gained significant popularity with the UK’s top Highland pipers to the point that this year’s event on October 5 at Inchdrewer House, Redford Barracks, promises to be one of the five or six marquee contests on the UK calendar.

The contest is organized by the Army School of Bagpipe Music & Highland Drumming – appropriate, since the event’s namesake was synonymous with the military organization throughout his long career.

There will be the usual host of Piobaireachd and Light Music events across all Competing Pipers Association categories: Premier, A-Grade, B-Grade and C-Grade, as well as a popular Hornpipe & Jig event open to all competitors.

“I will take great pleasure in welcoming all competitors and spectators to the Army School of Bagpipe Music & Highland Drumming for the seventh year of the Captain John A. MacLellan MBE Piping Championships,” said Gordon Rowan, the event’s chief organizer and the head of the Army School. “The work that Captain John did during his appointment as the first Director of Army Bagpipe Music laid the foundations and was indeed instrumental in developing Army piping and drumming today.”

The 16 Adjudicators are all members of the Solo Piping Judges Association:

• Euan Anderson
• Robert Barnes
• Walter Cowan
• Ian Duncan
• Alan Forbes
• Andrew Frater
• James Henderson
• Tom Johnstone
• George Lumsden
• Colin MacLellan
• Ronnie McShannon
• Willie Morrison
• Neill Mulvie
• Tom Speirs
• Logan Tannock
• Andrew Wright

The event has attracted a very strong entry in the piobaireachd events especially, popularity attributed largely to the event’s excellent organization, which runs with military precision.

“Player experience is what it’s all about,” Rowan concluded.

The Captain John A. MacLellan MBE Solo Piping Championships are separate from the Captain John A. MacLellan Memorial Medal Dinner-Recital, although each obviously pays homage to MacLellan, who was named to pipes|drums list of the modern era’s 20 Greatest Pipers in History.

Stay tuned for results from the 2019 Captain John Championships as they are available.

Related

Angus D. MacColl wins Captain John MacLellan Medal
August 24, 2019

Speirs, MacColl, Muir, Brown, Ferguson scoop hardware at Capt. John Memorial
October 6, 2018

Capt. John MacLellan Memorial Medal goes to Glenn Brown
August 26, 2018

The Greatest 20 Pipers in History
December 21, 2014