Captain John Medal piob performers confirmed for Aug. 30th in Edinburgh

The four invited competitor-recitalists have been confirmed for the 2025 Captain John A. MacLellan MBE Memorial Dinner & Recital Competition on Saturday, August 30th.

• Cameron Drummond, Edinburgh
• Jamie Forrester, Haddington, Scotland
• Ian K. MacDonald, Whitby, Ontario
• Iain Speirs, Edinburgh

MacDonald won the 2024 Captain John Medal. Speirs has won the event five times since it began in 2011 in tribute to MacLellan, one of history’s most significant competitors and contributors to piping. All four pipers in the 2025 event have won the Highland Society of London’s Gold Medal at either the Argyllshire Gathering or the Northern Meeting.

The venue will be the Caledonian Hotel, Edinburgh. The dress code is black tie. Tickets (£65) to the event always sell out and can be purchased here.

The Eagle Pipers Society took over management of the event in 2023.

“There is a strong Edinburgh feel to the line-up this year, which is particularly appropriate as this is one of Edinburgh’s only premier solo piping events and honours one of our founding members,” Eagle Pipers President Douglas Gardiner said. “It also provides a rare platform for the playing of 20th-century piobaireachd. One of the key successes of the dinner is bringing Captain John’s tunes into the popular competitive repertoire.”

Gardiner observed that Jamie Forrester won the 2022 Argyllshire Gathering Gold Medal playing “Jamie Forrester, who joins us for the first time this year, won his Oban Gold Medal playing MacLellan’s “Phantom Piper of Corrieyairack.”

Be sure to listen to the great “Captain John” performing over 150 piobaireachds in the pipes|drums Castle Recordings series presented by his son, Colin MacLellan.