Archive
Narreeben, New South Wales, Australia – October 1-2, 2022 – The Australian Pipe Band Championships returned after several years hiatus, and Hawthorn was the big winner in the top Grade 2 events, taking firsts in both the Medley and the MSR. The Western Australia Police, the only Grade 1 band […]
For most pipers competing solo at the top tier, there’s no more important achievement than winning one of the Highland Society of London’s Gold Medals at the Argysllshire Gathering at Oban or the Northern Meeting at Inverness. These awards are traditional history-making accomplishments dating back more than 150 years. To […]
pipes|drums was pleased to bring readers the exclusive first look at Bruce Gandy’s winning tune in the Eagle Pipers’ Society’s piobaireachd composing competition a few weeks ago. Since then, many have asked if we’d be able to publish the second-prize tune by Iain T. Cameron of Edinburgh. After a little […]
Western Canadian piping lost one of its great contributors with the passing of Jim McWilliams in Surrey, British Columbia, on September 23, 2022. McWilliams was many things in his life, including a soldier in the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps, a high school history teacher for 30 years, and an amazing […]
New Zealand was able to weather the pandemic storm better than most piping and drumming-rich countries around the world, even though the annual Jenny Mair Highland Square Day competitions had to be nixed last year, and now the country’s second-largest pipe band contest will be back December 10 in Palmerston […]
Ottawa – September 24, 2022 – Ian K. MacDonald was the winner of the annual Glengarry Cup competition for March. Strathspey & Reel playing, which returned as an in-person event for the first time since February 2020. About 100 people turned out at the Army Officers Mess venue. The PPBSO […]
David Bailiff, the accomplished piper, teacher and organizer, passed away in Newark, Delaware, on September 20th after several years of health problems. He was 10 days short of his 60th birthday. Born on October 2, 1962, he rose to be a successful competitor at the Open/Professional level, competing with success […]
The 10 invitees for the 2022 Glenfiddich Solo Piping Championships at Blair Atholl, Scotland, October 29th have been decided, and are the 10 that pipes|drums anticipated would get the nod by virtue of results at qualifying competitons: Callum Beaumont, Dollar, Scotland – overall winner at London in November 2021, second […]
While Nick Hudson was performing “Lament for the the Laird of Anapool” on the Eden Court Theatre stage at the 2022 Northern Meeting, on his way to winning the Highland Society of London Gold Medal for piobaireachd, he didn’t know that his wife was in labour back in Houston on […]
The Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association’s Music Board & Standards and Grading Group has changed the rule for Grade 1 bands playing two MSRs so each band in each event plays either an MSR comprising no more than four parts for each tune type or an MSR that has to […]
Millions, if not billions, of people around the world watched as Queen Elizabeth II was laid to rest in a five-hour ceremony in London that put on display Britain’s pageantry and poignancy at its finest. And there was perhaps never a bigger spotlight placed on piping and drumming, exposing the […]
The success of the piping and drumming teaching programming at Blairgowrie High School and various primary schools in the scenic Scottish town in Perthshire has brought a need for a pipe band drumming instructor to work with the more than 80 pupils who already have signed up. Working with recently […]
Campbeltown, Scotland – September 17, 2022 – The usually annual Springbank Invitational Solo Piping Competition resumed its regular yearly schedule with the event at the Argyle Arms Hotel, where Angus D. MacColl of Benderloch, Scotland, took the aggregate prize based only on the Piobaireachd and MSR events, with Campbeltown native […]
The well-known piper and piping historian Barry Shears of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, has released his latest work: Legacy: A Collection of Photographs and Music, a 224-page book of 191 new and traditional pipe tunes, 115 historical photographs and several essays on early piping in the Celtic-rich areas of Pictou […]
Renowned piper Bruce Gandy of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, is the author of the winning piobaireachd in the composing contest put on the Eagle Pipers’ Society of Edinburgh. Gandy’s “Eagle Pipers’ Society” won out against strong submissions from pipers around the world, described as a “very high standard of entry” by […]
The accomplished Ontario-based piper Andrea Boyd is the new pipe-major of the Grade 3 Ottawa Highlanders. She joins Lead-Drummer Mark Passmore and a strong pipe section and drum corps, following the group’s successful return to competition in the Ontario circuit, which included winning Grade 3 at the North American Championships […]