Archive

Treasured piping teacher Domhnall Ban MacDonald, an unsung hero of the art who has taught hundreds of young pipers over more than two decades in the schools of the isles of Uist and Barra, is in the running for the Tutor of the Year prize in the 2023 Scots Trad […]

After the Scottish Piping Society of London’s solo competitions on November 4th, Angus MacPhee of Inverness and Keith Bowes Jr. of Glasgow emerged the winners of the Competing Pipers Association’s 2023 league table rankings for B-Grade and C-Grade members. The standings are compiled based on nine designated solo piping competitions […]

The 21st annual MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards are on December 2nd at the Caird Music Hall in Dundee, Scotland, and this year Highland piping again comes up in several spots among the 22 categories. Multi-instrumentalist-piper Ross Ainslie seemed ubiquitous in 2023 with many solo and ensemble projects, and […]

With a first in the Piobaireachd event and a fourth in the MSR, Liam Horne of Bristol, Virginia, was the winner of the seventeenth annual United States Junior Solo Piping Championship, part of the annual Balmoral Classic competitions run by the Balmoral School of Piping & Drumming at the University of Pittsburgh. Horne won by his higher placing in the Piobaireachd, tied with Magnus Stone, Natick, Massachusetts, who was second, and Duncan Winters, Grand Junction, Colorado, who was third.

The Midwest Pipe Band Association, under President Jim Sim, is continuing to lead with progressive measures designed to bring piping and drumming competition and performance into a more modern era. At the MWPBA’s annual general meeting on November 4th, some 65 members, present in-person and online, passed several five substantial […]

Glasgow’s Finlay Johnston was the big winner of the 2023 Scottish Piping Society of London’s annual solo competitions, taking three of the four major Saturday events, only missing the Hornpipe & Jig contest. For winning the overall, Johnston gets an invitation to the 2024 Glenfiddich Championship, where he will compete for his third title at Blair Castle in October.

Roddy MacLeod of Glasgow won the coveted Bratach Gorm for piobaireachd at the annual Piping Society of London (SPSL) solo piping competitions once again at the sumptuous Caledonian Club in the capital of England. It was MacLeod’s ninth time winning the Bratach Gorm.

Despite being a registered nonprofit serving the Pacific Northwest’s piping and drumming community, Meta – the oligarchical parent company that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – effectively shut down the benign organization’s properties on those “platforms” without any warning or explanation. The shutdown started on November 1st, with the BCPA’s […]

“The reason I wrote this article is that if the Ancient Martial Music dies out, the piping world will lose the best branch of the Piobaireachd, and to stop this from happening, I think that this branch of the music should go into the pipe bands. There are plenty of people among the bands who are clever, daring, and highly imaginative, and if they adopt this technique, it could be a refreshing change that might enhance their performance.”

The Pipers & Pipe Band Society has regraded none of its member bands for the 2024 competition season, and only one solo piper was moved to the Professional class. The organization’s Music Committee proposed that Kayleigh Johnstone of Aurora, Ontario, be elevated to Professional in both Piobaireachd and Light Music. […]

The shrewdly canny Tom Glover of Christchurch, New Zealand, is the winner of the 2023 pipes|drums Pick the Glenfiddich Five contest! For his stupendous powers of prediction, Tom receives a brand-new Infinity pipe chanter and a special merch pack from our friends at R.G. Hardie & Co. “The timing is […]

We connect with the 34-year-old Beaumont on his first Glenfiddich win. He talks about what it means to him, how he got to this point, and lends some sound advice to young pipers and drummers aspiring to greatness.

The Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association has finally clarified the contentious judging matter at the 2023 Grade 1 World Pipe Band Championships, the first known comments from the organization since August 19th, just after the final competition results were announced. In the minutes of the RSPBA’s October 7, 2023, Board […]

Callum Beaumont of St. Andrews, Scotland, was the winner of the 2023 Glenfiddich Solo Piping Championships, the fiftieth rendition of the event held for the fiftieth time in the Great Hall of Blair Castle, the ancestral home of the Duke of Atholl. It was Beaumont’s first time winning the award, taking the championship by merit of his win of the Piobaireachd event, with prize lists comprising eight of the 10 contestants.

Since its inception in the 1970s, the Alma Highland Festival & Games has been a Saturday-Sunday event in the small college town of Alma, Michigan, over the USA’s Memorial Day weekend each May. While that was great for American residents, who enjoyed the following Monday as a statutory holiday, Canadian […]

We live in a fantastic era, even more extraordinary when someone as young and poised and altogether focused a drummer as Kerr McQuillan can cop the award at age 19 on his first try. In this second part of our brief conversation, McQuillan talks about the past year as Leading-Drummer of Peoples Ford Boghall & Bathgate Caledonia and the year ahead. As you watch and listen, perhaps remind yourself that his achievements are history-making on many levels.