National Piping Centre goes to Edinburgh

The National Piping Centre is still based in Glasgow, but it will hold special piping events in Edinburgh as part of The Gathering 2009 festival in Holyrood Park in July, including recitals, a traditional so competition and the staging of the popular Pipe Idol contest.

 

On Saturday, July 25th, the National Piping Centre Instructors and Students Piping Exhibition will take place at 2 pm featuring performances by instructors Roddy MacLeod, John Mulhearn and Gillian Chalmers.

 

Sunday, July 26th, will see Pipe Idol at 11 am, a version of the popular Piping Live! event in which eight young solo pipers will compete for the title of “The Gathering Pipe Idol.” Competitors James McKenzie, Steven Blake, Struan Thorpe, Emmett Conway, Steven Leask, Jonathan Graham, Craig Muirhead and Cameron Drummond will perform a March, Strathspey, Reel, Hornpipe & Jig and a medley of their own, with unidentified judges scattered through the audience.

 

A version of Piping Live!’s Masters Solo Invitational Piping Competition will be held on the same day starting at 9:30 am, with Stuart Liddell, Willie McCallum, Angus MacColl, Gordon Walker, Niall Stewart, Greg Wilson, Euan MacCrimmon and Bruce Gandy vying for the prizes.