Hilton Chanter receives prestigious 2025 Australian Good Design Award

Without doubt, a well-made classic set of Highland bagpipes is considered one of the most beautiful of musical instruments; A typical practice chanter? Perhaps not so highly regarded.

Until now, that is: the Hilton Chanter, created by Australian virtuoso piper Lincoln Hilton, has been recognized for innovation, craftsmanship, and reimagining a traditional instrument in this year’s Good Design Awards.

About the Hilton Chanter the Awards’ organizers commented:

“The Hilton Chanter reimagines the traditional bagpipe practice chanter as a professional performance instrument. Reimagining a musical instrument can be a gamble – but it has paid off big time here. Great effort has gone into the sound . . . while the highly considered styling brings the Hilton Chanter into the 21st Century. Modernizing an ancient instrument and gaining acceptance from musicians is no easy feat. The Hilton Chanter appears to strike a fine balance of maintaining traditional qualities while enhancing usability and playability with great sensitivity. A brilliant showcase of innovation and design impact. Bravo.”

The Hilton Chanter is in great company. Among other recipients of 2025 Good Design Awards were no less than renowned form-meets-function companies like Apple, Dyson, Qantas, and Telstra.

The Hilton Chanter is believed to be the first Highland piping instrument to receive a design accolade of international renown.

“Over the years, teaching hundreds of pipers at Haileybury College, I realized that sound and aesthetic are powerful motivators,” Hilton said. “If a student liked how their instrument looked, felt and sounded, their practice time doubled. Traditional practice chanters serve their purpose, but tone isn’t often their focus. With the Hilton Chanter, I wanted to create the best-sounding practice chanter a piper can pick up that inspires you to play more and more.”

“We set out to create a reimagined instrument that inspired pipers and made better playing inevitable – something worthy of the hours they devote to this craft.” – Lincoln Hilton

The Hilton Chanter is offered in various iterations, including “Shadow” (named for his and his wife Heather’s dog) and the limited “Founders Edition,” which is made with helicopter-grade aluminum and solid brass, and tuned to equal temperament, allowing pipers to play in-tune easily with virtually any other musical instrument.

Unlike most world-famous Highland pipers, Lincoln Hilton is not known first for his competitive achievements, mainly because he doesn’t focus on solo competition. He has gained fame through his innovative compositions and arrangements, showcasing many of them in highly creative videos that have collectively garnered millions of views.

Lincoln and Heather Hilton’s Modern Piping business has produced highly regarded publications, including “Ceol Beag,” a 150-composition, 345-page hard-bound collection of his music, itself innovatively presented and award-winning.

Launched in 1958 and endorsed by the World Design Organization, the Good Design Awards are seen as Australia’s highest international design accolade, “honouring people, projects, and brands driving innovation and setting new global standards. The Awards recognize design excellence from around the world, across 13 Design Disciplines and more than 35 categories, spanning the built environment, product design, engineering, digital, social impact, policy design and many more categories. Each entry undergoes a rigorous evaluation by over 80 international Judges, assessed against three core criteria: Good Design, Design Innovation, and Design Impact.”

The 2025 awards were presented at a gala event at the ICC in Sydney.

“We never set out to make ‘a better practice chanter,'” Hilton added. “We set out to create a reimagined instrument that inspired pipers and made better playing inevitable – something worthy of the hours they devote to this craft.”