The 25th annual pipes|drums New Year’s Honours

The pipes|drums New Year’s Honours celebrate 25 years in 2025, and this year was perhaps the most bountiful yet for the depth of nominees in eight award categories.

The piping and drumming world continues to build and progress. The standard of performance again reached new highs; the large number of commercial products and collections underscored our sizable marketplace; and more accomplished leaders are highlighting the responsibility that associations have to their members, the piping and drumming world at large, and yet undiscovered new audiences.

As we have every year since 2001, we assembled a panel of well-informed experts, vetting each for any potential special interest in the nominees and asking them to recuse themselves if we missed a less obvious potential bias.

Congratulations to all winners, nominees, and those who contributed so much to piping and drumming over the last 12 months.

The list of awards includes the return of Music Collection of the Year, thanks to a robust group of publications.

• Pipe Band of the Year (all things considered, not only or not even competition)
• Piper of the Year (encompassing all aspects of their work)
• Solo Competition Piper of the Year (considering only competition success)
• Drummer of the Year (encompassing all aspects of their work)
• Association Leader of the Year
• Product of the Year
• Music Collection of the Year
• Event of the Year

And now, the results as determined by our panel. . .