Calum Brown & Sean McKeown: humility, inspiration and words of wisdom from the 2026 Gold Medallists – Part 1

Pursuing a Highland Society of London Gold Medal at the Argyllshire Gathering and Northern Meeting can be a complicated obsession for top-tier solo pipers. It can take a few forms:

• Tragic: Decades of chasing the coveted medal, punctuated by occasional prizes, maybe one or more torturous seconds, just barely out of reach before the hands start failing and the piper gets the dreaded “tap on the shoulder,” with their entry rejected and their pipe dream put to rest. The days of getting the prize for decades of “good attendance” are thankfully gone.
• Dignified acceptance: Bowing out gracefully, a piper realizing the chase is a selfish conceit, that other things like family, work, and sanity are higher priorities, and that they’ve risen higher than 99.9% of the world’s Highland pipers anyway.
• Relieved: Capturing the prize after multiple, but not too many, attempts; staying focused and positive; being rewarded for staying the course; building a repertoire; learning the music; and putting the piping, not the prize, first. Most winners fit this category.
• Charmed: Picking off the prize after just a few tries or even on the first attempt, opening the door to a lifetime of new piping opportunities and goals that are proverbial gravy to gaining the Gold. Examples of this form are infrequent.

The third and fourth forms are of course greatly preferred, and the 2026 winners slot nicely into each.

Twenty-seven-year-old Calum Brown of Peterculter, Scotland, won this year’s Highland Society of London Gold Medal at the Northern Meeting, capturing the prize only two years after his first attempt. He’d gained a fourth Gold Medal at the 2025 Argyllshire Gathering and, after several other significant solo piping successes, quickly established himself as a favourite.

Brown started his piping at age seven with instruction from his dad, Graham, and Pipe-Major John Stewart of the Aberdeen Police Pipe Band. By age 10 he was seeing Jack Taylor in nearby Aboyne, receiving a thorough grounding in piobaireachd from the 1973 Northern Meeting Gold Medallist pupil of the great Bob Brown and Bob Nichol.

Calum Brown saw Taylor regularly until 2017, when he enrolled in the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s B.Mus. (Piping) program in Glasgow, further honing his skills and knowledge with Josh Dixon and Willie McCallum for the next five years. He was also a member of Inveraray & District during that time, and gained three seconds in the Silver Medal competitions at Oban and Inverness before a promotion to the Gold Medal contests in 2024.

Since earning his degree, Brown has run the piping program at Robert Gordon’s College, a co-educational private school for day pupils in Aberdeen, and also joined Grade 2 TEXO Deeside Caledonia, where he’s pipe-sergeant, working with Pipe-Major Robert Grant.

At age 45, Sean McKeown of Bowmanville, Ontario, took a longer, but no less rewarding, path to winning the Highland Society of London Gold Medal at the 2026 Argyllshire Gathering. He won the prize after 10 years and 16 tries, since first gaining entry to the events in 2016, the year after he won the Silver Medal at the Northern Meeting, which he earned after seven years and 13 attempts.

His first tries at the Gold Medals in 2016 resulted in a perhaps unprecedented two second prizes, as he was runner-up to his great friend and fellow Toronto Police officer Ian K. MacDonald, who captured a historic “Double.”

With two seconds, the reasonable expectation would be to win one or both prizes in relatively short order. In addition to two cancelled years due to the pandemic, family, career, and plain good luck can play a big role in results, and no one, least of all McKeown himself, would have it any other way.

McKeown’s huge commitments to his family and profession are on a different level from his impressive dedication to piping. Winning the Oban Gold Medal with his young son, Charlie, in the audience, while wearing his Red Ross tartan Toronto Police kilt reflected all three of his major life commitments at once.

Like Brown, McKeown’s had first-rate instruction from the get-go, starting in 1994 with a sound grounding in fundamentals from Gail Brown as a member of her famous Milton Optimist band, 1994 and ’97 Juvenile World Champions. A successful solo piping track on the Ontario circuit stalled while he recovered from pneumothorax surgery (partial lung removal) after a collapsed lung, but he returned to the scene in 2004, joining the Toronto Police force and the then Grade 1 band.

An encounter with Bill Livingstone in 2005 at a massed bands resulted in the great piper practically demanding that McKeown come to him for instruction. Along with MacDonald and subsequent Gold Medallist Andrew Hayes, Livingstone took him under his wing, seeing the budding Professional grade soloist consistently add to his now-lengthy list of big prizes.

McKeown joined the 78th Fraser Highlanders for the 1998 season, and then returned to Milton in 1999, before joining the Grade 1 Toronto Police from 2000 to 2006, then returning to the 78th Frasers from 2007 to 2010. He returned to the Toronto Police from 2011 to 2018, the last three years as pipe-major. From 2019 on, he played with Grade 1 Field Marshal Montgomery, and since 2025 has been the playing instructor with the Grade 4/Youth Durham Regional Police Pipe Band. Since 2009, he’s been a member of the non-competing Toronto Police Ceremonial Band as a serving officer.

After many years with high-profile covert units (coincidental to piping, also highly stressful and rewarding), McKeown was recently promoted to a sergeant’s role responsible for training officers across the Toronto Police Service’s 5,300-officer base.

While Brown and McKeown took different tacks to becoming Gold Medalists, and they’re separated by 18 years, they have much in common and will always be bonded by becoming part of piping history in the same year.

We got together with them by video to talk about their victories, each realizing a lifelong goal as they set their sights on new piping objectives, but with the satisfaction that they’ve already summitted their first major climb.

Here’s the first of our exclusive two-part discussion:

Here’s a transcript of Part 1, with minor edits for written clarity.

pipes|drums: We’re pleased to have the 2026 Highland Society of London Gold Medalists at Oban and Inverness, respectively: Sean McKeown from Bowmanville, Ontario, and Calum Brown from Peterculter, Scotland, both winning with the piobaireachd, “Port Urlar.” It most likely won’t be their crowning achievement, but it’s a huge achievement, and a historic one for both of them. Congratulations, and we’re looking forward to chatting about your experiences.

Both: Thank you.

pipes|drums: Sean, you’ve been at this for a relatively longer period of time than Calum – a good 12 years, maybe. Now that you’ve achieved this great success after coming close several times, are you actually relieved? How do you feel about it?

Sean McKeown: I would say relief is probably one of the emotions higher up on the list! It was certainly a relief to do it. My first year was 2016 in the Gold. I had some success. Around that time, things were progressing well in my solo piping career, and I came off a second and first in the Silver Medal in 2015, winning the Open Hornpipe & Jig [at the Northern Meeting]. That pushed me into the Gold Medal the following year in 2016. In 2016, Ian K. [MacDonald] won his double Gold Medal. I was second in both events behind Ian. And I was thrilled for Ian.

But in that moment, my mindset going into that event was to show that I belonged here. And getting those two seconds showed me I belonged on the podium. For me, that was a huge achievement at the time. Around that same time, I started to have kids, and my career changed a bit. The demands at work were growing, but I wanted to stay at the best level I could. And there were a few years where I was able to put a bit more time into solo piping, others a little bit less, but it was obviously my goal to win it. I had thought after 2016 that. I have a real shot at doing this.

And I didn’t have the . . . I don’t want to say the time, but there was a lot in my life I was trying to balance. In 2017, ’18, and ’19, I put in a good effort and got a few prizes here and there. COVID hit. I believe 2020 and 2021 were the two COVID years. And we were back in 2022. Same thing: a few prizes since 2022, but in the last few years things have, I would say, settled with work. I’m at a position now where it’s a bit more relaxed than what I was doing. It’s a bit more predictable in terms of scheduling.

And my kids are a little bit older now, and they’ve become more independent. Those nights when you lack sleep because of work and kids are far between. We do play chauffeur to our kids and their activities now, but for the most part, they like to be independent at home with their friends. That frees up a little bit more time to focus on some piping. I’m still playing, or have been, with Field Marshal Montgomery for the last few years. I try to keep my band-playing at a good level. This year I was able to focus a little more on solos, getting my instrument right, and focusing on the music. Thankfully, everything came together when it mattered for me at Oban. Yeah, it’s been a bit of a journey and maybe less linear than others, certainly not as quick as Calum’s. But I’m very relieved that it happened, grateful for the journey and all the prizes along the way and definitely excited for what’s to come.

pipes|drums: Calum, you’re 27 now, but you’ve been at the Gold Medal for a relatively shorter period of time, maybe three, four years. Did you think it would take a lot longer to win? Were you shocked and amazed that you actually got it quickly?

Calum Brown: Yes and no. I mean, spending a couple of years in the Silver Medal, I think really set me up well. After getting three consecutive seconds in the Silver, I was getting a little bit frustrated, and I was like, When am I ever going to get the Silver? Thankfully, I was bumped up to Gold Medal the year after, in 2024. And yeah, I’m kind of shocked that it’s come this soon. Even when they were reading the results out, and my name was read out, I was like . . . honestly, my body left my soul as soon as it was read out because I was like, there are so many great players who you’re competing against.

When I arrived on Thursday, I made a point of not listening to anybody else because I just needed to focus on what I’m doing, focus on my tune and whatever’s going on in my head rather than getting all these ideas, like, “They played really well; I don’t know if I can play that well.”

And that’s when the thoughts start to spiral, and you’re in the tuning room, and you’re like, do you think I can play as well as that? Realistically, this year all I really wanted to do was try to get the pipes right, have a bit more time to get the pipes right, get the tunes off absolutely 100-percent. Once the pipes are going, you don’t really need to worry about them; they just play themselves, and you can then focus on the music, which is obviously most important.

“I’m also a big believer that stress can be enhancing if your mental framing is proper. I try to look at it that way and use that to my advantage as best I can.” – Calum Brown

It’s a bit of a shock that it’s come this soon, but I have been really working hard in terms of getting the tunes off and getting my pipe to a point where I’m happy with them. You can enjoy it after that. It’s one of those things that you’ve got to really work towards it if you really want it.

When you’re in such a prestigious event, you don’t go there expecting to win it. You go hoping to play well and enjoy it. That’s all you can do at the end of the day. And then obviously it’s out of your control because that’s up to the judges.

pipes|drums: And speaking of preparation, you’ve both got the Glenfiddich coming up. I’d imagine you’re suddenly at battle stations in terms of preparation. Calum, let’s stay with you. What are you doing to prepare for October 31st?

Calum Brown: To be honest with you, I’m not actually doing a lot in terms of gearing up massively for it. I’m mostly sticking to the same schedule I have been doing for the likes of the Gold and previous piobaireachd competitions, because, why try to fix something that’s not broken?

Like I say, the pipes have been my main focus, and just getting them a bit more locked in. For example, recently I’ve been trying to get my bass a bit more locked in, changing reeds and just making sure they’re absolutely rock steady and something that I don’t have to worry about on the day of the Glenfiddich.

One of the main things that I’m trying to do just now is trying to stay healthy, like what Sean does – I know he does a lot of fitness stuff, like going for a walk outside or just eating healthy, and staying off the drink, which is quite difficult because my birthday’s coming up!

The most important thing is, for me especially, is just keeping consistency right now up until the Glenfiddich. I’ve got other things on right now, for example, like the BBC Young Traditional Musician of the Year. I’m in the semi-finals for that, and that’s this weekend.

I don’t really see it as a massive step up, because I’ve submitted tunes in the past where there have been six of each before. For example, at London we’ve done the Gillies Cup and the Former Winners’ MSR, all six of each. It’s not something that I’m not used to.

But what I would say is, knowing your tunes inside out and having the best time of it – because I know how frustrating it can be when your pipes aren’t in, and your tunes aren’t going well – if those things are going well, you don’t really have anything to fear.

Another thing as well that people assume is that because you’re up against these big guys, there are Stuart [Liddell] and Finlay [Johnston] and Callum [Beaumont] who have won these events multiple times through the years, and for us, I’m sure you’ll agree, Sean, we’re just there to have the best time of it really and put our mark there.

pipes|drums: Sean, are you on the same kind of wavelength, or are you experiencing bouts of abject terror going to the highest level of competition there is?

Sean McKeown: No, no terror at all. A ton of gratitude for it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a lifestyle, but I do this for fun, and I love piping. And for me, it’s not a feeling of terror. It’s, “I get to do this.” I’m excited for it. I’m looking forward to playing.

In terms of preparation, same as Calum: I’m just looking to get my bagpipe right and play the tunes the best I can on the day. And hopefully, my personality and interpretation of the music will come out in the piobaireachd and the light music that I play. Hopefully, I can execute that on the day.

Calum and I had a good conversation at Inverness: I’m just looking to enjoy the performance, and if I can go out with a solid bagpipe and enjoy the performance, then I’ve done everything I can do. And I feel good about that. That’s what I’m looking forward to doing. There’s not much different. Why break a winning formula? For me, it’s always just trying to find a balance in life and piping and do what I can when I can.

“I’m a big believer that stress can be enhancing if your mental framing is proper. I try to look at it that way and use that to my advantage as best I can.” – Sean McKeown

I’ve told others, I’m a big believer in systems for success. Once you find a system that works for you, whether it’s, in my case, for solo piping or for band piping or for teaching or fitness or diet or whatever it might be, you can always fall back on your systems. And if your systems are strong, you know what the standards should be and how to get back on track. For me, I didn’t play my pipes yesterday because it was a busy, late day at work. And that’s fine. I expect that, but I know what I need to do to make up for it. Preparation? No, not much different. Do what I can when I can. I know what I’m trying to accomplish and the level I’m aiming for.

And I hope that as the Glenfiddich approaches, I’m able to check all those boxes for my own standards and go out and perform well, but also listen to some great performances. It’s the best piping in the world. To have the opportunity to see that live will be pretty great. Terror? No, not necessarily. Maybe a little stress, but I’m also a big believer that stress can be enhancing if your mental framing is proper. I try to look at it that way and use that to my advantage as best I can. More excited than terrorized.

 Stay tuned for Part 2 of our exclusive conversation with 2026 Gold Medallists Calum Brown and Sean McKeown, coming soon.