Alex Pavlovic: 2025 Nicol-Brown Amateur Champion

Rockville, Maryland – October 11, 2025 – Alex Pavlovic of Houston was the overall winner of the 2025 Nicol-Brown Amateur Invitational Piping Competition against a field of nine other top amateur solo pipers from North America, held at Saint Mark Presbyterian Church. Pavlovic won the aggregate with firsts in the Piobaireachd and MSR events.

Liam Horne of Wise, Virginia, won the 6/8 Marches competition.

It was the forty-second running of the event, which was first held in 1982 as the Nicol-Brown Chalice Piobaireachd competition. The William Ross Challenge Targe MSR was added in 1987, and the Donald MacLeod Memorial 6/8 Marches was introduced in 1990.

Piobaireachd (Nicol-Brown Chalice; judges chose one tune from a list of three submitted by each competitor)
1st Alex Pavlovic, “Lament for Patrick Og MacCrimmon”
2nd Jean-Sébastien Gamache, Ottawa, “Corrienessan’s Salute”
3rd Colin Richdale, Coquitlam, British Columbia, “The King’s Taxes”
4th Abby Long, Houston, “Lament for the Viscount of Dundee”
5th Flora Stone, Natick, Massachusetts, “The Massacre of Glencoe”

MSR (William Ross Challenge Targe; judges chose one from two of each genre submitted by each competitor)
1st Alex Pavlovic, “Johnny MacKinnon, Arisaig,” “The Shepherd’s Crook,” “Donald MacLean, R.M.S. Athenia”
2nd Liam Horne
3rd Colin Richdale
4th Jean-Sébastien Gamache
5th Aiden Fowler

6/8 Marches (Donald MacLeod Memorial; two tunes chosen by each competitor)
1st Liam Horne, “P-M Donald MacLean of Lewis,” “Mrs. Lily Christie”
2nd Colin Richdale, “Mrs. Lily Christie,” “The MacNeils of Ugadale”
3rd Jean-Sébastien Gamache, “Cameron MacFadyen,” “P-M Sam Scott”
4th Alexander Walker, “Dovecote Park,” “Caverhill”
5th Abby Long, “The Dornoch Highland Gathering,” “Slainte”

Also competing were Aiden Fowler, Langley, British Columbia; Jim Malcolm, River John, Nova Scotia; Alex Rocheleau, Windsor, Ontario; and Alexander Walker, Pacific Palisades, California.

Alastair Lee and Willie McCallum judged all three events.

The events are named for three of history’s most significant contributors to Highland piping.

A dedicated group of volunteers puts on the competition. It is not sanctioned by any association.