Archive
If you haven’t listened to the playing of Brìghde Chaimbeul, you really need to get on board. The 25-year-old native of Sleat on the Isle of Skye has been turning heads and attracting ears with her virtuoso playing and creative, even experimental, playing on both the Highland pipes and Scottish […]
The twenty-first running of Winter Storm will go from Thursday, January 11th, until Sunday, January 14th, at the Kansas City Marriott – Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri, and if weather forecasts are accurate, the event could wrap perfectly around . . . winter storms. With five inches of […]
What is this incredibly successful Scottish musical arts program in Houston all about? How does the operation keep turning out highly skilled pipers and drummers in seemingly unlikely Texas in America’s deep south?
Some years ago, before the age of the internet and maybe even the era of gizmos and geegaws, we came up with a popular feature named “StarBox,” where we’d ask famous players worldwide to list the contents of their carrying case. Not just the basics – everything. From drones to […]
The Ardmore Cup Invitational Solo Piping Competition has welcomed in the New Year by signing a sponsorship deal with Sullivan’s Brewing Company as a gold-level sponsor for the second annual contest on February 24th in Ardmore, County Waterford, Ireland. According to competition organizer Eric Stein, the company will provide financial […]
When Ainsley Hart was elected president of Pipe Bands Australia in late 2020, he was presented with an organization fraught with several controversies and a global pandemic that felt like it would never end. A few years later, he has helped to guide the Australian piping and drumming scene into […]
We mourn the pipers, drummers and enthusiasts who sadly left us in 2023. Seven great leaders of and contributors to the art and the piping and drumming community who passed away last year.
The world’s first competition of the New Year once again took place at the Waipu Highland Games, where Stuart Easton of Palmerston North, New Zealand, won the overall title in the New Zealand Open Solo Piping Championships were held at the 151st running of the event. Tai Tapu, New Zealand’s Greg Wilson was the runner-up. Fourteen competed in the Open/A-Grade events.
What a year! What accomplishments! What a journey for the piping and drumming world! The year 2023 brought incredible feats of success on the competition field and boards, in products, and in leadership. Every year since 2001, we’ve brought you the pipes|drums New Year’s Honours – a look back at […]
Piers Dover of Christchurch won the overall and $500NZD on a Medley preference after a tie with Liam Kernaghan, Wellington, who had two second-prizes at the annual Northcote Invitational Solo Piping Competition at the Northcote Tavern on the North Shore of Auckland. Campbell Wilson won the MMSSRR, and, as is tradition, the previous year’s winner, Stuart Easton, judged both events.
In 2023, nearly 200 news stories (not counting articles about competition Results, Features, Interviews, Reviews, Opinion pieces, or other special pieces) were published in pipes|drums. All told we brought you almost 400 articles over the year, and, as always, we thank you for reading. But which 2023 News stories were […]
The Royal New Zealand Pipe Bands Association will bring in Scott Wallace and Jake Jörgensen as guest instructors for the organization’s Annual Summer School in Christchurch January 10-14, the largest gathering non-competition of pipers and drummers in the Southern Hemisphere, with more than 150 players of all abilities expected to […]
We brought you nearly 80 Feature stories in 2023 – the articles not categorized as News, Interviews, Reviews, Opinion, or other special pieces. We looked back at the data, and here, in reverse order, are the 10 features readers read and watched the most. (Please note that you will need […]
To all of our readers worldwide, we wish you a Merry Christmas and the happiest of holidays! It was another eventful year, and we enjoyed bringing you the hundreds of news, reviews, interviews, views, videos, and feature stories that have populated these pages over the last 12 months. We […]
Editor’s note: pipes|drums welcomes all fair perspectives and opinions. Sharing information and constructive dialogue are at the heart of the publication. Like all who live in a fair democracy, free speech and the free exchange of ideas are central to progress. Our competitive art can move forward only by asking […]
On the afternoon of Friday, December 22nd, just before locking up their 45 Washington Street headquarters for the holidays, the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association’s Board of Directors kept hope of creating additional major championships in 2024 alive with an unspecific message: The Board of Directors are working hard to […]