Angus MacColl wins Alasdair Gillies Challenge

Glasgow – August 16, 2018 – At a packed Strathclyde Suite at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall complex, Angus MacColl of Benderloch, Scotland, won the annual Pipe-Major Alasdair Gillies Memorial Recital Challenge, the event originally credited with inspiring the Piping Live! festival.

MacColl won the event against fellow invited contestants Callum Beaumont, Linlithgow, Scotland; Alex Gandy, Halifax, Nova Scotia; and Stuart Liddell, Inveraray, Scotland.

As with the original requirements of the event, competitors play whatever they like, but must include on “heavy” MSR and the ground of a piobaireachd. The rest of it is completely their own choice within the confines of 40 minutes, including tuning.

The competition-recital was started in the late 1990s, originally called the Lord Todd Bar Recital-Challenge, held at the central pub at the University of Strathclyde.

The competition changed venue when it became too popular to accommodate demand, and it also changed its name to commemorate the late Alasdair Gillies, who won the competition and just about everything there is to win in solo piping before his untimely passing.

The P-M Alasdair Gillies Memorial Recital-Challenge is sponsored by McCallum Bagpipes.