Results

The final Live Online competition of the 2024 Competing League for Adult Solo Pipers CLASP saw the usual bevy of contestants from around the world performing live via online video, their recorded performances assessed over a few weeks by the judges.

An unusual early season snowstorm causing travel and transit chaos across central Scotland couldn’t keep the annual Livi Invitational Solo Drumming Competition from putting on a great show by some of the world’s greatest pipe band snare drummers, all in aid of Cedarbank School for Learning Disabilities and the Dogs Trust.

Gillian Blaney of Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia, won all three events at the 2024 George Sherriff Amateur Invitational to win the overall championship against eight other competitors from around North America. It was the 27th time the competition was held, this year at St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church.

Alasdair Henderson was the aggregate winner in the top grades at the 2024 Scottish Piping Society of London’s annual competitions, held at the Caledonian Club in the UK’s capital city, thus securing an invitation to the 2025 Glenfiddich Championships in October. Henderson enjoyed a huge day, winning three of the four events in which he played.

Finlay Johnston of Glasgow won the 2024 Bratach Gorm for piobaireachd at the annual Scottish Piping Society of London solo piping competitions at the Caledonian Club in the heart of the city. It was Johnston’s first time winning the coveted prize.

Callum Beaumont of St. Andrews, Scotland, won the third annual Sun Belt Invitational Solo Piping Competition held at the Orlando Sheraton North Hotel. The professional-level competition had a prize pool of more than US$6,000. It was Beaumont’s second time winning the aggregate prize after winning the 2022 event, the first year the competition was held.

Alex Pavlovic and Nicolas Bowden, both from Houston, were the overall piping and snare drumming winners, respectively, of the 18th Balmoral Classic U.S. Junior Solo Piping & Drumming Championships held at the University of Pittsburgh for players 21 and younger. 

Against nine other elite solo pipers, Callum Beaumont of St. Andrews, Scotland, was the winner of the 2024 Glenfiddich Solo Piping Championships, held again at the Great Hall of Blair Castle in Scotland’s rolling and verdant Perthshire countryside during an always spectacular autumn. It was Beaumont’s second consecutive time winning the championship and his second time overall.

After two gruelling rounds and three plays, Inveraray & District Lead-Drummer Steven McWhirter gained the 2024 World Solo Drumming Champion title against 31 other elite pipe band snare drummers at Glasgow Caledonian University.

Saint Mark Presbyterian Church hosted the 41st Nicol-Brown Amateur Invitational Solo Piping Championship. After completing the three events, Gillian Blaney of Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia, emerged as the overall winner.

With an MSR win and a second in the Piobaireachd, Callum Beaumont of St. Andrews, Scotland, emerged the overall winner of the Premier Grade at the annual Captain John MacLellan Memorial Army School Solo Piping Competition at Inchdrewer House, Redford Barracks.

The Commonwealth Pipes & Drums of Melrose, Massachusetts, was the overall winner of the top grade at the 2024 Celtic Classic in the historic downtown of Bethlehem. The band finished second in both Grade 3 Medley and MSR contests, which were won by New York Metro and McMillan-Birtles, respectively. Eight bands competed in Grade 3. The Grade 4 band contest was held on September 28th.

With two second prizes, Tyler Bridge of Guelph, Ontario, was the winner of the 2024 Glengarry Cup Solo Piping Competition, an event put on by the Ottawa Branch of the PPBSO and originally organized in the 1980s by the Glengarry Pipe Band of Maxville, Ontario. The contest is traditionally held on the same weekend as the National Police and Peacekeepers’ Memorial events on Parliament Hill in Canada’s capital city.

With a Piobaireachd win and a third in the MMSSRR, Callum Beaumont of St. Andrews, Scotland, was the overall winner of the 2024 Springbank Invitational Solo Piping Competition held at the Argyle Arms Hotel and organized by the Kintyre Piping Society.

There’s nothing unusual about holding a solo contest, but the inaugural Raasay Piping Competition at the Raasay Community Hall on the island adjacent to the Isle of Skye was devised by the well-known multi-instrumentalist piper Hamish Moore in an effort to strengthen the instrument’s connection with its “Gaelic roots.”