Archive
The Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association has scheduled July 12th for the 2025 United Kingdom Pipe Band Championships in Ingliston and the west side of the Edinburgh area in “collaboration” with the Royal Highland Centre. For the first time since 2014, the competition will not be held in Northern Ireland. […]
New Brunswick piping stalwart Andy Rogers has been awarded the King Charles III Coronation Medal for his contributions to community, province, and country as a piper and music teacher. The surprise presentation was made at Connaught Street School in Fredericton, New Brunswick, on December 12th by Mayor Kate Rogers, Andy […]
Eight pipers are confirmed so far for the 2025 Ardmore Cup on February 22nd at St. Declan’s Village Hall in Ardmore, Ireland: Alastair Donaghy, Beragh, Northern Ireland James Frazer, Rathfriland, Northern Ireland Finlay Johnston, Glasgow Angus D. MacColl, Benderloch, Scotland Willie McCallum, Bearsden, Scotland Ashley McMichael, Antrim, Northern Ireland James […]
Among the many solo and band contests at the December 14th Jenny Mair Square Day Competition in Palmerston North, New Zealand, a notable success in the Open Solo Snare Drumming emerged when Grade 4 Metro Scottish Lead-Drummer Becky Weir was first against a field of 10 of the country’s best […]
Playing nearly 20-year-old refurbished blackwood Sinclair chanters from the band’s storage cupboard, Manawatu Scottish came out strong at the annual Jenny Mair Square Day competition, the second contest of the New Zealand season and the largest event next to the New Zealand Championships. The band enjoyed first-place rankings from all eight judges in hot and windy conditions against Auckland & District and Invercargill. Seventeen bands competed across the four grades.
The annual Redding Amateur Solo Piping Competition will for the second time serve as a qualifying contest for the Pipe-Major Sandy Jones Memorial Invitational when the event goes ahead on March 1-2 at the Red Lion Hotel in Redding, California. The aggregate winner of the Grade 1 events at Redding […]
We continue with Part 2 of Jennifer Hutcheon: the pipes|drums Interview. Among many other topics, she discusses being the first female to compete with a Grade 1 band when she joined Red Hackle under Pipe-Major John Weatherston and Lead-Drummer Wilson Young. The band was on the cusp of winning the World Championship, and in 1972 gained the then Scottish Pipe Band Association’s Grade 1 Champion of Champion title.
The Grade 1 78th Highlanders (Halifax Citadel) of Halifax, Nova Scotia, are in L-D recruitment mode again as Tom Cuming resigned after three seasons in the role to devote more of his time to an ailing family member. “I fully understand and sympathize with his family situation,” said Alex Gandy, […]
There’s an adage that Highland dancers inherently make better pipers when it comes to imparting the nuance of strathspeys, reels, hornpipes and other dance-genre tunes. If that’s true, then the Grade 1 Police Scotland Fife have an advantage with Pipe-Major David Wilton being a seven-time World Champion Highland dancer, and […]
The Pipers & Pipe Band Society of Ontario elected Malcolm Bow as its new president at its annual general meeting, held online on December 7th, 2024. Bow replaces Andrew B. Giles, acclaimed to the role at the PPBSO’s December 2023 AGM, as a replacement for Michael Grey, who resigned from […]
The Eastern United States Pipe Band Association has re-elected President Bill Caudill and Vice-President Joe McGonigal. The results were finalized and communicated to members the day before the organization’s 2024 annual general meeting, which will be held online on December 7th. Caudill received 70% of the nearly 900 votes cast, […]
We continue with the eleventh installment of “Castle Recordings” piobaireachds in our exclusive series of performances captured on reel-to-reel tape at Edinburgh Castle in the early 1960s by the late Captain John A. MacLellan MBE. “The Battle of Baladruishaig” “The Battle of Strome” “Clan MacRae’s Salute” “Cluny MacPherson’s Salute” “The […]
The British Columbia Pipers Association elected David Hilder president, replacing incumbent Rene Cusson, at its annual general meeting on November 30th. The election was not made official until later in the week, when a letter from Hilder was sent to all BCPA members on December 5th. He is the former […]
“If you want to do it, I say go for it, because but you do need assistance. You need people willing to help you out, because you can’t do it by yourself.” So says Beverley Gandy of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, about her nine-month quest to return to competition pipe band […]
It’s the merriest time of the year, even in the Antipodes where their contest season is in full swing! As we like to do, we’re pleased to offer the pipes|drums Holiday Shopping Guide as a service to our thousands of readers worldwide who are looking for gift ideas for their […]
“The stark findings and statistics show clear areas where it is critical that improvements are made right across piping and drumming in Scotland with immediate effect.” Helen Urquhart, Head of Events at the National Piping Centre, reached this conclusion after a survey of 291 female pipers and drummers commissioned and […]