Plum Director of Piping job in Ontario available following Matt MacIsaac’s resignation from St. Andrew’s College

Renowned piper Matt MacIsaac has resigned as the Director of Piping & Drumming at St. Andrew’s College in Aurora, Ontario, effective at the end of the 2025-’26 academic year. MacIsaac said that he decided to leave the position, which he called “one of the best piping gigs in the world,” to return to his native Nova Scotia to be closer to his family.

The private, independent boarding and day school for boys from grades five to 12 is now searching for a suitable candidate to take over the extensive and well-established program that provides top-flight instruction for raw beginners to advanced players in both piping and drumming. Well-known exponents of the program include Andrew Douglas of New York and Ontario’s Henry Paluch, who served as pipe-major of the school’s non-competing performance band and enjoyed a successful competitive career after graduating.

You don’t necessarily have to have Matt MacIsaac’s piping chops, but the ideal candidates should have “success at high levels as a soloist on the bagpipes, experience leading pipe bands or sections, and particular expertise in the playing and teaching of piobaireachd,” along with some other applicable talents.

The St. Andrew’s College teaching program has existed since 1915 – 16 year’s after the institution was founded. The program was accelerated in the 1990s when Jim McGillivray was hired as its director. McGillivray retired in 2019 and continues to help with the program.

The school did not provide a salary range. Still, it did say that it offered a “competitive compensation and benefits package, which includes the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan for those certified to teach in Ontario” and that applications from outside Canada would be considered.

It was unclear whether the new director would be expected to run the St. Andrew’s College Association competition band, as MacIsaac has since it started in 2019. The band comprises students and non-students, and expects to have its request to move to Grade 3 approved after competing in Grade 2 in 2022 and 2023. The band was on a competitive hiatus in 2024.

Questions about the role or application process can be emailed to St. Andrew’s College’s human resources department.

The application deadline is Monday, October 27th, and should be sent here.

St. Andrew’s College (Aurora) is one of an increasing number of private institutions worldwide that offer top-flight piping and drumming instruction as part of their elective curriculum. Others include Dollar Academy, Fettes College, George Heriot’s School, and George Watson’s College in Scotland, as well as numerous private colleges in Australia and New Zealand.