Freaky and beautiful art: Eilidh MacDonald reviews “N C // 20 Pipers” at Piping Live! 2026

N C // 20 Pipers
“Reimagining Terry Riley’s minimalist masterpiece, ‘In C,’ arranged by Erwan Keravec”
Piping Live! 2026
Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow, free

Reviewed by Eilidh MacDonald

If your goal is to understand what’s happening and to assess how good it is, you will never achieve it.

It was about going and buying in – just embracing what the moment was and letting yourself float in the middle.

“N C // 20 Pipers” was a bit freaky:  20 musicians playing Highland pipes, bombards and binou. Three of the bombards were deeply pitched, so when you sit in the middle, you were hearing echoes that sounded and felt like birds. If you relaxed into the experience, it was beautiful.

This performance was true art. Nothing close to an MSR, and it made me understand more about what we’re doing in pipe bands.

The performers were dressed in black, and they seemed to enjoy it. Everyone knew what they were playing, and they appeared to have a click-track in their ear. At one point, the arranger Erwan Keravec was standing listening in the middle, almost as part of the performance.

The beat or the time signature was not unclear; it was always evident where the emphasis was and what was happening. It was not always the highest-pitched bagpipe; it was not always the bombard; the sounds came and went.

“If you relaxed into the experience, it was beautiful.”

The Highland pipes had corks for the drones with strings attached, to cork them or uncork them when required. It was like jumping in the ocean and letting it take you, and truly one of the coolest experiences I’ve ever had.

If you were to wonder what’s possible with a bagpipe, you might think that you can play this music or that music, but we always think “Three drones and a chanter,” and you play the notes.

But this was beautiful and different. The bagpipes that were part of that piece were not just about the sound the chanter makes – cutting in, cutting out; one drone in, one drone out – and there were moments where pipers were squeezing the bag to make drone sounds that weren’t fully-blown, and it was like all part of the ensemble of the piece – and truly moving.

I don’t know that I have the words.

That Piping Live! brought “N C // 20 Pipers” to Glasgow was brilliant. The tickets were free, and, for the piece of music it is, that’s crazy. But free was important, because more people needed to experience this performance.

I have been to Piping Live! since it was called “Piping Hot” 26 years ago, and “N C // 20 Pipers” was the standout piece of art. It was truly moving: moments when I saw a friend in tears.

It doesn’t matter what any pipe band plays this weekend. They won’t be as much a piece of art as “N C // 20 Pipers” achieved this night.

From Regina, Saskatchewan, Eilidh MacDonald is a mover and shaker in the world of Highland piping. A top-flight musician, she has been a member of the Grade 1 78th Highlander (Halifax Citadel), ScottishPower, Shotts & Dykehead Caledonia and currently plays with Bagad Brieg. She holds a PhD from Dalhousie University and works as a cardiovascular research scientist in Glasgow.