The 23rd annual pipes|drums New Year’s Honours

2023 Piper of the Year (all aspects) – tie

We had a tie for the Piper of the Year honour for the first time. Indicative perhaps of where Highland piping is heading, neither piper is known for competition success (though they have competed successfully). They’re building enormous reputations for creative performance, harnessing the power of their recorded and live music to spread piping wealth to new audiences on a global level, while also disabusing people of any wrongheaded notion that only males can be great pipers.

Brìghde Chaimbeul

Ally Crowley-Duncan (Ally the Piper)

No Highland piper in history has come anywhere close to the world audience that Ally Crowley-Duncan of Schenectady, New York, has achieved as “Ally the Piper.” Experimenting with covers of hit pop songs, creating stage-ready costumes and take-no-prisoners persona, she’s gained tens of millions of views on social media, and, with Berklee-educated violinist Mia Asano, embarked on a North American tour to sold-out halls. She recently was awarded a New York State Assembly Citation for her achievements. Crowley-Duncan is an accomplished competitive piper, but she’s recognized that the sound of Highland pipes can attract a global audience. Add recognizable music and great staging, and you have certifiable hits that convert new audiences to the Highland pipes. (Check out our March 2023 conversation with Ally Crowley-Duncan.)

Panellists’ comments on Brìghde Chaimbeul:

• Brìghde Chaimbeul is a singular voice within our tradition. She has broad appeal beyond our insular world, having signed with Rough Trade, collaborated with Colin Stetson, Caroline Polachek, and innumerable appearances around the world at large music festivals. This wasn’t done through pop covers on the bagpipe, big dance festival audio production, a large social-media personality, or heaps of new tune compositions. Brìghde’s music is quietly traditional, primarily Gaelic, somewhat recontextualized, and delivered in her unique voice. The traditional music ideal: tied to places and people but not conservative and restricting. As a piper, I’m drawn to her unique execution that isn’t note-specific; it’s rhythmic and functional, but not gratuitous or needlessly virtuosic. Whereas so much of the piping music from the Glasgow trad scene, RCS, etc. is chromatic, highly-produced, technical, chord-based (and so much low whistle!), Brìghde’s music leans into the drone, using various tunings herself, and seeking out collaborators such as Aidan O’Rourke, Radie Peat, Colin Stetson who draw out further drone-based harmonies and dissonances. Similar to the MacDonald brothers of Moidart, she unearths the old, weird Scotland. There’s been a recent movement in Ireland of like-minded artists mining traditional material for new sounds: earthy, rooted, and somehow speaking to our modern condition. I can only hope Brìghde will spark a similar movement in Scotland while her artistic vision continues to evolve.
• Brìghde has been opening up pipe music to new audiences for some time. Her music and arrangements are always interesting. A rare talent.
• Truly brilliant.

Panellists’ comments on Ally Crowley-Duncan:

• Massive and largest following worldwide must be celebrated.
• No piper in history has reached so many people globally as Ally the Piper. We will never know how many have been inspired to learn the pipes or changed their minds about our much-misunderstood instrument, but it’s a lot.
• Ally has been ground-breaking in bringing Highland bagpipes to the masses.
• Thinking outside the box; bringing the Highland artform to pop culture; highlighting diversity; showcasing a new genre of the Highland bagpipe.

Also nominated (in alphabetical order)

Ross Ainsley – If there was a stage for Celtic music in Scotland, it seemed like Ross Ainsley was on it in 2023. From Celtic Connections to Piping Live! to playing on the tarmac at Glasgow Airport as Snoop Dogg arrived for the Scottish leg of his world tour, Ross Ainsley is the world’s most rock and roll piper.

Julie Brinklaw – The pipe-major of Grade 2 Portlethen & District took the band to new heights, including winning at the European Championships and being runner-up in the Champion of Champions table. And she did this after a rapid return from a significant illness and surgery, showing great determination and resolve.

Ross Harvey – Peoples Ford Boghall & Bathgate Caledocina’s pipe-major took his band to the top, and his contributions to teaching are profound. Harvey quietly goes about the business of producing excellence year in and year out.

Jack Lee – Another year of competition success both as pipe-sergeant of Simon Fraser University and in the marquee solo contests, Jack Lee at age 65 simply keeps rolling like a youthful machine. His nearly 10,000-tune BagpipeMusic.com is the world’s most extensive repository of our music.

Karen McCrindle-Warren – The Ayrshire, Scotland, piper is the pipe-sergeant of Grade 3 Kilmarnock, and her work, along with Paul Warren, in the EPIC teaching program they started five years ago, is bringing significant benefits to the long-neglected East Ayrshire community. McCrindle-Warren fought back from the brink after a horrific car crash in the spring to return to contributing to the art.

Katie Robertson (The Wheeled Piper) – An inspiration, Katie Robertson of Dundee, Scotland, has overcome disabilities to learn the Highland pipes and become a social media star at the same time. She joined Grade 2 MacKenzie Caledonian. No tune is too difficult for her, no challenge insurmountable.