Johnston, Lee, MacColl, Speirs on tap for Captain John Medal

Finlay Johnston of Glasgow; British Columbia’s Jack Lee; Angus MacColl of Argyllshire; and Edinburgh’s Iain Speirs will be the featured performer-competitors on the evening of Friday, August 26th, at the 2022 Captain John A MacLellan MBE Memorial Dinner & Recital Competition at the Waldorf Astoria Caledonian Hotel in Scotland’s capital city.

The running of the event will be for the first time in the hands of the Edinburgh-based Eagle Pipers’ Society, whose members voted to take on the sumptuous black-tie affair held right between the major Scottish solo piping gatherings at Oban and Inverness.

The event puts an emphasis on the music rather than the competition. The four invited pipers providing virtuoso music at one of Scotland’s most famous and luxurious hotels.

Speirs is a three-time winner of the competition, which calls for each piper to perform a piobaireachd chosen from a list of tunes either composed by or closely associated with MacLellan, one of the greatest contributors in the history of the art.

MacColl was the winner of the 2019 contest-recital, the last time the event was held before the pandemic put paid to almost all in-person competitions in 2020 and 2021.

A two-time Glenfiddich Champion, Johnston was the winner of the 2021 Premier Grade piobaireachd at the Captain John MacLellan Competition, a separate event run by the Army School of Piping & Drumming, but which also pays homage to the great piper.

Making his second appearance at the event is Jack Lee. The Captain John MacLellan Medal might be the only major solo piping prize that Lee has not won in his nearly 50 years of competing.

The winner of the medal will be determined by Jack Taylor.

Eagle Pipers President Douglas Gardiner said that “Numbers are limited and we expect demand to be high,” and tickets can be secured via the organization’s website.

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