Archive
The British Columbia Pipers’ Association was officially started in 1932, making it one of the world’s oldest piping and drumming organizations. With roots dating back to 1905 with the Pipers’ Society and the Vancouver Pipers’ Society in 1921, the BCPA today has about nearly 500 members and almost 20 competing […]
Forty-one bands across all grades and nearly 550 solo piping and drumming competition performances are on tap for Friday, June 14th, and Saturday, June 15th, for the annual Chicago Highland Games, a relatively young event that is already one of the largest in North America. A feature of the competition […]
The new European Knockout Bagpipe Competition, with the tagline “Bringing Europe’s Best Pipers Together,” is scheduled for March 22, 2025, at a location to be determined in Germany. According to piping impresario Eric Stein, who’s organizing the new event, the European Knockout Bagpipe Competition is being modelled after the Eurovision […]
Pipe band drumming legend J. Reid Maxwell received his official honourary degree for his lifetime of service to the art today by Simon Fraser University at the university’s convocation ceremony in Burnaby, British Columbia, along with nine other individuals with a similar level of accomplishment in research, writing, music, cultural […]
The Pacific Northwest piping and drumming scene has a particular way of turning grief into gratitude. In 1994, the sudden deaths of pipers Malcolm Bokhenforh and Rob Barbelak resulted in the formation of the wonderfully successful Robert Malcolm Memorial Pipe Band organization, a teaching effort that has realized hundreds of […]
Dubbed “The Bang in Penang,” the Southeast Asian Championships were held on the grounds of the historic St. Xavier’s Institution in Georgetown, a departure from the usual venue in Singapore.
Nick Hudson of Houston won the U.S. Piping Foundation’s annual Maclean Macleod Solo Piping Competition, held at the Amy E. du Pont Music Building at the University of Delaware.
We’re pleased to bring pipes|drums viewers videos of the performances by the six bands playing in the Grade 2 MSR competition at the 2024 Georgetown Highland Games in Georgetown, Ontario.
The Peel Regional Police Pipe Band won the top contested event at the annual Georgetown Highland Games, which traditionally begins the outdoor contests season in Ontario. The weather was mostly sunny, with temperatures around 20°C to start, but things clouded over in the afternoon, and the wind whipped up, with a few light showers cooling the day.
Against nine other Grade 1 bands, Peoples Ford Boghall & Bathgate Caledonia won the 2024 British Championships. Grade 2 went to Glasgow Skye Association.
The British Championships at Forres, Scotland, and the United States Piping Foundation’s Maclean Macleod Memorial Piping Championships in Delaware are the big events in the piping and drumming world taking place on Saturday, June 8th. The British Championships are the second of five Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association major competitions, […]
In the penultimate Part 4, Cusack talks about the St. Thomas Episcopal School operation, inspiring students, the team buy-in required to be successful, and being a pipe band in football-mad Texas.
Eddie Boland, Donald Morrison and Kathryn MacEwan were the overall Grade 1, Grade 2, and Grade 3 winners, respectively, at the well-attended in-person CLASP (Competition League for Amateur Solo Pipers) competition at the National Piping Centre.
Drumming for Drinks, maybe the most inventive and fun event in the history of piping and drumming history, will not be held in 2024 and the foreseeable future. The celebrated day of performance and revelry for drummers, pipers and music lovers of all kinds was first held in 2007 and […]
Greighlan Crossing won both Grade 3 band competitions, which were the top contested events, and Zephan Knichel had the overall best day in the Open solo piping, winning the MSR and placing second in the Piobaireachd.
Edinburgh’s Ben Duncan won the senior solo piping overall at the annual Markinch Highland Games, held in decent weather in the Kingdom of Fife. Duncan also won the MSR and was second in the Piobaireachd, while Glasgow’s Mike Fitzhenry won the ceol mor.