National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland applications open

If you or your daughter, son or favourite young piper or drummer might be the next John D. Burgess or Jim Kilpatrick musical prodigy, there could well be a spot for them in the National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland.

Applications open on April 1st for players ages 18 to 25 to join one of three regional National Bands that are part of the National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland program, with an eye to begin rehearsals and performances between September 2022 and February 2023.

The program is run by the National Piping Centre and headed up by Director Steven Blake, who said: “We are excited to launch another year of the NYPBS with three National Bands this year. Our bands create a community for Scotland’s top young players to help each other develop and create new, exciting music for the concert space.”

The National Youth bands are non-competing and stress collegiality and musicality. Both new applicants and members intending to return must go through the application process each year. Instructions are here.

Successful applicants will be able to audition at various locations around Scotland:

• April 30 – Aviemore Community Centre (tbc), Aviemore (pipers only)
• May 1 – National Piping Centre, Glasgow
• May 28 – National Piping Centre, Glasgow
• May 29 – National Piping Centre, Glasgow (pipers only)

You don’t have to be Scottish to join, but need to reside in the country in order to attend practices and performances.

The National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland program ties in with the country’s overall support of teaching piping and drumming throughout its state-run school system, as well as significant programs run by fee-based schools that also consistently field high-calibre competing bands.

The conversion of piping and drumming in Scotland from being a quirky hobby to one of the coolest things for kids to do has resulted in Scotland’s return as a high-volume juggernaut of excellent players, leaving other piping and drumming regions of the world struggling to keep up.