Countdown to Captain John Medal on with allocation of tunes and tickets

The venerable Eagle Pipers’ Society are counting down the days until the Captain John. A MacLellan Memorial Dinner-Recital-Competition on August 26th at the Waldorf Astoria Caledonian Hotel in Edinburgh, one of the world’s great invitational solo piping events.

Ticket sales to the black-tie event have been brisk, and those that are left must be procured before sales close at 23:30 BST, Sunday, August 14th. Tickets are priced at £50 and include dinner from the four-star hotel and the chance to rub shoulders with the glitterati of the solo piping world.

You can buy them at the Eagle Pipers’ website.

The invited pipers have also been assigned the MacLellan-authored piobaireachds that they will perform at the event:

• Finlay Johnstone, Glasgow, “A Lullaby for Iain”
• Jack Lee, Surrey, British Columbia, “The Edinburgh Piobaireachd”
• Angus MacColl, Benderloch, Scotland, “Salute to Sir John A. MacDonald”
• Iain Speirs, Edinburgh, “Salute to the Succession”

The competition pays tribute to ceol mor composed by or associated with the late Captain John A. MacLellan MBE, one of the greatest contributors to Highland piping in the history of the instrument.

Each of the competitors is in the world’s elite group of solo competition pipers, each a previous winner of the Glenfiddich Championship more than once.

The event will be judged by Jack Taylor and the event is sponsored by the William Grant Foundation, the organization that supports numerous solo piping competitions and causes, including the Glenfiddich Championship.

The Eagle Pipers’ Society ceased functioning for 25 years until it was resurrected in 2010. It now boasts an international membership, with regular meetings from about October to May. The Eagle Pipers’ necktie, which members receive on joining, has become a ubiquitous emblem worn by solo pipers worldwide.