Archive
The British Columbia Pipers Association is partnering with the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association to bring an event that will enable as many as four snare drummers to qualify to compete in the semi-final round of the World Solo Drumming Championship. The Pacific Rim Solo Drumming Championship will be held […]
Glasgow – March 11, 2023 – Callum Wynd of Stirling, Scotland, was the top winner at the annual Duncan Johnstone Memorial B- and C-Grade Solo Competition, taking the award with two second-prizes. The B-Grade events were held at the National Piping Centre’s Otago Street premises, while the C-Grade took place […]
The members and administrators of the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association met both in-person and online for the organization’s annual general meeting where several significant matters were decided. A proposal to remunerate RSPBA directors for their “services” performed at major championships was again rejected, as it was when a similar […]
Christchurch, New Zealand – March 11, 2023 – Canterbury Caledonian Society successfully defended their New Zealand & South Pacific Pipe Band Champions title against four other Grade 1 bands in a full day of competition at North Hagley Park in the heart of the country’s picturesque city. The band won […]
Edinburgh’s Usher Hall in Edinburgh is perhaps Scotland’s most prestigious concert venue, rarely if ever the venue for pipe band shows, but on April 2nd the National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland will mark its 20-year anniversary with a special performance with special guests Celtic folk musicians Ross Ainslie and […]
Redding, California – March 4-5, 2023 – The annual Redding Solo Piping Competition returned as the largest indoor event on the Western United States Pipe Band Association’s contest calendar, with 37 contestant, mostly from the Pacific Northwest vying for prizes. The competition gives pipers four events to compete in over […]
On this International Women’s Day, frequent contributor Jeannie Campbell MBE takes a look at four remarkable female pipers of the past, including Elspeth Campbell, associated today with the great 2/4 march, but was in fact one of the first great competitive woman pipers in history. Four sensational women pipers of […]
It’s rare when two of the world’s perennial top-six Grade 1 bands make a leadership change in the same year, and it’s rarer still when one of them is the reigning World Champion, but that’s exactly what the pipe band world saw in 2022 when both Peoples Ford Boghall & […]
The Internet – February-March 6, 2023 – Charles-David Mitchell of Montreal was the overall Grade 1 winner of the first CLASP (Competition League for Amateur Solo Pipers) “Live Online” event of 2023, and, with it, receives travel and accommodation to compete at the first Sun Belt Amateur Invitational in Maitland, […]
The Grade 1 Simon Fraser University Pipe Band will take stage on August 16th for the annual Pre-World’s Concert, the biggest non-competition performance event on the piping and drumming calendar, this year at the 3,000-seat SEC Armadillo in Glasgow due to extensive renovations occurring at the normal Glasgow Royal Concert […]
Sandy Jones, one of the greatest figures in American piping and the only American-born piper so far to receive the Balvenie Medal for Services to Piping, died on March 5, 2023, in his eighty-fifth year. Born in Idaho in 1938 to parents with Scottish heritage, Jones started piping in 1946 […]
Glasgow – March 4, 2023 – Craig Sutherland of Perth, Scotland, emerged the overall champion at the 2023 Uist &Barra Invitational Solo Piping Competition held in the auditorium of the McPhater Street National Piping Centre headquarters. Piobaireachd 1st Craig Sutherland, “The Park Piobaireachd” (#2) 2nd John Mulhearn, Glasgow, “Queen Anne’s […]
Since 2001, Dr. William Donaldson has been contributing his Set Tunes Series for pipes|drums readers. Now comprising more than 170 piobaireachds, the series is the world’s largest free online repository of ceol mor. Each piece includes all known published manuscripts, often from obscure publications only available from the National Library in […]
Oscar Wilde famously wrote, A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. Now, those of us who have the piping and drumming affliction appreciate the priceless value of what we do. The camaraderie, the never-ending quest for excellence, the competitions highs and […]
When the pandemic hit, the Pipe-Major Donald MacLeod Memorial Invitational Solo Piping Competition had become one of the favourites on the calendar for both the world’s elite pipers fortunate enough to gain an invite and the piping-loving Hebridean community at which the event is held. After three years of not […]
On the heels of a grass roots petition signed by more than 10,000 supporters worldwide, Finlay MacDonald and Simon McKerrell appeared at a Scottish Parliament hearing on the “BBC: Impact of the Digital-first Agenda.” MacDonald, Director of Piping at the National Piping Centre, and McKerrell, Professor in Media & Music […]