2025 Pittsburgh workshop spreads the piob gospel according to McIntosh

The third annual Jimmy McIntosh MBE Piobaireachd Workshop in Pittsburgh attracted 34 students of all ages and abilities over the final weekend in February to be immersed in the big music of the Highland pipes with instructors/recitalists Andrew Carlisle, Peter Kent, Alex MacIntyre, and Mike Rogers, each a student of the late ceol mor master.

In addition to the all-day Saturday workshops at Carnegie Mellon University, more than 100 people turned out for a night of fun and music at the Pitch on Butler sports bar in Pittsburgh to hear loads of piobaireachd. The night culminated with 2000 Argyllshire Gathering Highland Society of London Gold Medallist Rogers’ performance of “Lament for the Viscount of Dundee.”

Fifteen-year-old Meghan McElhinney of Akron, Ohio—the recipient of the Jimmy McIntosh MBE Piobaireachd Scholarship—closed the Saturday teaching day with a performance of “The Little Spree” and “The MacFarlanes’ Gathering” that she had worked on with another McIntosh pupil, Amy Garson, over the last eight months.

The Pittsburgh Piobaireachd Society, started in 2014 by Carlisle, Nick Hudson, and Palmer Shonk, organized the event.