Archive
Regina, Saskatchewan – May 19, 2023 – After many years of hosting a competition for professional players, the Saskatchewan Highland Gathering & Celtic Festival ran an own-choice medley event for amateur pipers, with pipers invited from across three provinces. It was the largest audience ever for this event, with people enjoying […]
Many have called G.S. McLennan the greatest piper of all time. As a composer and competitor, he ranks with the best. His fame as a piper is well documented; his pipemaking career is less well known. G.S.’s firm operated in Aberdeen from 1922 until his death in 1929. There are few known examples of his instruments, despite his being in business for a little more than seven years.
The first Sun Belt Invitational Piping Championship (“An Crios Gréine”), held last November in Maitland, Florida, quickly established itself as one of the world’s preeminent contests and, with the addition of the Sandy Jones Memorial Amateur Championship and 10 elite-level professional pipers already invited the second edition looks to take […]
A few lean pandemic years notwithstanding, two decades have flown by since the debut of Piping Hot! a fledgling festival run what was known simply as simply the Piping Centre in Glasgow, and now the National Piping Centre and its partners will celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Roddy MacLeod’s brainchild […]
A novel digital collection of 11 original full-length suites for Highland pipes will be launched by the Edinburgh-based piper John Dew on May 19th, thanks to funding via the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s “Make It Happen” project for Scottish music creators. The collection will available on a USB sick through […]
Inveraray & District was the winner of their first contest of 2023 at the annual Gourock Highland Games on Scotland’s west coast against a field of three other Grade 1 bands. Peoples Ford Boghall & Bathgate Caledonia, under new Leading-Drummer Kerr McQuillan won the drumming and finished second as a band.
Sean McKeown of Bowmanville, Ontario, earned the 2023 Livingstone Invitational Solo Piping Championship overall prize with a second in the piobaireachd and a second in the MSRHP&J against a field of 10 other contestants. Of note, McKeown gained his piobaireachd prize playing “For Ranald,” probably the first time Bill Livingstone’s piece composed in honour of his late brother was performed in competition.
“No, I can’t sew your button on your shirt.” Laura Mullin takes a humourous (but many a true word . . .) look at the lighter side of being a mom in the piping and drumming world
City of Edinburgh kicked off the Scottish outdoor band competition season in perfect form by taking straight firsts in Grade 2, the highest contested event at the first outing on the RSPBA circuit. England’s City of Newcastle won the Grade 3 competition, also with four first placings, against seven other bands.
The long off-season is officially over this weekend for Scottish bands as the outdoor competition circuit returns with events at the traditional opener at Dunbar on Saturday and then Banchory and Gourock on Sunday. While each event offers a Grade 1 competition, only Gourock on Scotland’s west coast has attracted […]
The first in-person Nicol-Brown Amateur Invitational Solo Piping Competition in three years on October 7th will be the fortieth staging of the world’s most prestigious amateur contest, and for the first time in Rockville, Maryland, in partnership with the Institute of Musical Traditions, an independent non-profit that “preserves and promotes […]
Telling a competitor with an anxiety disorder to “relax, stop stressing and just play” would be similar to telling someone to play their instrument despite having a huge leak in their bag.
As the saying goes, the Canadian Mounties “always get their man” and, by the looks of it, they also get their tunes, as evidenced by the 227 compositions that make up the new 260-page Royal Canadian Mounted Police – Maintiens Le Droit – Music for the Great Highland Bagpipe collection, […]
The MacCrimmon Cairn at Borreraig on the Isle of Skye is sacred ground for piobaireachd lovers and something of a piping Mecca, pipers making the trek to the site to pay some sort of homage to the dynasty credited with creating many of the greatest piobaireachds known to the art […]
For piobaireachd in New Zealand, no one contributed more to the advancement of the art than Neville and Ian McKay, and now Comunn na Piobaireachd (NZ) is launching a compositing competition to commemorate the brothers. The Sir Ian and Neville McKay Piobaireachd Composition Competition will award NZ$1,000 (about US$635) to […]
Adelaide – May 6, 2023 – With a win of the John MacDonald of Inverness Clasp, and high prizes in the A-Grade light music, Stuart Easton of Palmerston North, New Zealand, was the overall winner in the top grade at the annual R.U. Brown Piobaireachd Society Solo Piping Competition. Jonno […]