2026 Capt. John Medal lineup complete with Beaumont, Drummond, Midgley and Sutherland

For the first time, two competitors from abroad will perform at the 2026 Captain John A. MacLellan MBE Memorial Dinner on August 29th at the black-tie event at the Caledonian Hotel in Edinburgh.

Derek Midgley of Tinton Falls, New Jersey, and Craig Sutherland from Vancouver are on the bill with Callum Beaumont of Guardbridge, Scotland, and 2025 winner Camerom Drummond from Edinburgh.

Ian Duncan will be the sole judge, assessing the four performances of piobaireachds written by or closely associated with Captain John MacLellan, one of the greatest players, composers and contributors in the history of Highland piping.

Each piper is assigned one of the compositions to prepare in advance of the event at the five-star hotel in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle, where MacLellan worked for many years as the Director of the Army School of Piping.

Guests are treated to a cocktail reception and a sumptuous dinner provided by the hotel, before settling into the piping.

Tickets are £65 and available directly from the Eagle Pipers’ Society, which took over the organization of the event from the Captain John A MacLellan Memorial Trust in 2022. The competition was launched in 2011 by the MacLellan Trust as a way to pay homage to the great piper and his music.

“One of the key successes of the dinner is bringing Captain John’s tunes into the popular competitive repertoire.” – Douglas Gardiner, Eagle Pipers’ Society

“The evening is one of the very few premier solo piping events in Edinburgh and honours one of our founding members,” said Douglas Gardiner, president of the Eagle Pipers’ Society, which organizes the unique event. “It also provides a rare platform for the playing of 20th-century piobaireachd. One of the key successes of the dinner is bringing Captain John’s tunes into the popular competitive repertoire.”

The competition-recital is supported by the William Grant Foundation and has sold out in recent years. The event is deliberately held between the Argyllshire Gathering and the Northern Meeting to allow more international pipers to enjoy it.

The Eagle Pipers Society was founded in the 1970s but went dormant in 1985. The organization was resurrected in 2010 by several Edinburgh-based pipers, including Colin MacLellan.

Captain John MacLellan was named as one of the greatest 20 pipers in history by a panel of experts assembled by pipes|drums in 2014.