EUSPBA gradings complete. Here’s the list

At the end of 2024, the Eastern United States Pipe Band Association embarked on a project to rate its panel of approximately 90 judges into A and B categories.

The leaders of the world’s largest piping and drumming association by geography said they were responding to repeated requests from members to delineate adjudicators based mainly on long-term competitive success at the highest levels.

EUSPBA judges were informed of their designation the week of January 19th, and they were allowed to appeal if they felt their grading was inaccurate. According to sources, EUSPBA judges received the final list from Secretary Linda Hall on February 17th, with the proviso that designations will not go into effect at EUSPBA competitions until January 2026.

Several judges graded B expressed their dismay to EUSPBA administrators through heated email exchanges. At least one long-serving judge said he would resign from the panel rather than fight it.

“Creating these designations has not been approached without careful thought and consideration,” said EUSPBA President Bill Caudill. “As all of our Executive Committee and Music Board will attest, one of my concerns was that we not create any division or separation within our current judging panel based on the implementation of an A/B system. We are all in this game together, and no matter how one may be designated, we need to focus in a united way on what is in the best interest . . . of piping and drumming within the EUSPBA.”

“We have truly come a long way since our Association’s founding fathers, and we should continue to look back upon them with great respect and reverence for what they created for us.” – EUSPBA President Bill Caudill

In the early 2000s, the Alliance of North American Pipe Band Associations set stringent long-term competitive success as the main criteria for a judge’s A or B assignation. The EUSPBA was the last North American Association to group its judges into A or B.

According to ANAPBA guidelines, A-level solo piping and drumming judges must have “A minimum of 15 years (minimum seven years at the Professional level) solo light music competitive playing experience” with a “reasonable degree of prize-winning success, as interpreted by the home association’s Music Board, in Professional.”

A-level pipe band judges must have a “(1) Minimum 10 years playing experience on the Great Highland Bagpipe at the Grade 1 or 2 band level; and (2) Must have competed in a Grade 1 pipe band for five years or been Pipe-Major or in a position of musical leadership of a Grade 2 band for 5 years.”

EUSPBA judges serving as guest adjudicators in events sanctioned by other associations that require top-grade events to be assessed only by A judges created some confusion with competitors.

“We have truly come a long way since our Association’s founding fathers, and we should continue to look back upon them with great respect and reverence for what they created for us,” Caudill continued. “However, we cannot be static and complacent when looking toward a continually evolving future. This is a big step for the EUSPBA in many ways, but one that I feel our past leaders would look upon with approval based on the standards and realities of the present.”

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