The 13th annual pipes|drums New Year’s Honours!

2014 Piper of the Year

Ryan Canning

Whoever made the decision to recruit Canning in 2012 to take over Shotts & Dykehead Caledonia should be given a medal. In less than two years, Canning has led this historic band back from history’s abyss to top-six prizewinning at RSPBA majors. Canning has attracted new talent, worked in perfect sync with Leading-Drummer Jim Kilpatrick, and has worked to start a new Shotts Juvenile Solo Competition for the local North Lanarkshire community. And in 2015 Shotts will return to the concert stage after a long hiatus. Under Canning, Shotts looks set for a long time at the top, and he gets the nod as pipes|drums 2014 Piper of the Year.

Also considered (alphabetical order):

• Roddy MacLeod – he continues to amaze by managing the National Piping Centre, the Piping Live! festival and holding down an elite-tier solo competition schedule.
• Liz Maxwell – okay, so she’s not a piper, but she continues to do a tremendous amount for piping through her promotion of the art via Glenfiddich-sponsored events. Without Maxwell’s smart marketing efforts, pipers and piping enthusiasts around the world would be a lot poorer. Thank you.
• Douglas Murray – the Cupar, Scotland-native made history, becoming only the eleventh piper to take down both Gold Medals at Oban and Inverness.
• Richard Parkes – advice to pipe-majors and future pipe-majors: do what he does.
• Alen Tully – the first-year Pipe-Major of the Grade 1 St. Laurence O’Toole not only kept the band solid, but led the group to consistent prizing in RSPBA majors, returning them to realistic World Championship contenders in 2015.