Archive

March 18, 2024

He’s making the news a lot these days, so it’s another good reason to check in to hear how he’s feeling with all the accolades and milestones coming down on him. Does it point to retirement, or is there still more fuel in the tank?

March 16, 2024

Canterbury Caledonian Society successfully defended their title by winning the 2024 New Zealand Pipe Band Championship in excellent conditions at the two-day event. Celtic (Nelson) took the Grade 2 title. As is the custom in New Zealand, the full prize lists were not announced at the prize-giving ceremony.

March 15, 2024

The fourth event in the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association’s new eight-contest Solo Drumming Champion of Champions league is the second annual Pacific Rim Solo Drumming Championship, this year moving to ScotFestBC, also known as the British Columbia Highland Games on June 14th in Coquitlam, BC. The PacRim will also […]

March 14, 2024

He’s one of the most accomplished contributors in pipe band drumming history, and today Simon Fraser University announced that J. Reid Maxwell will be conferred with an honorary degree for his lifetime of service. The SFU Pipe Band leading-drummer will receive the honour at the university’s convocation ceremony in Burnaby, […]

March 13, 2024

We catch up with the National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland’s Director, Steven Blake, Senior Drumming Instructor Grant Cassidy, and piper Ryan McCreadie, who also plays with reigning World Champions People Ford Boghall & Bathgate Caledonia, to discuss the organization and its concert on April 14th in Perth.

March 12, 2024

The venerable Mackenzie Caledonian Pipe Band organization – affectionately known as “Mac-Cal” – is putting on a show by Willie McCallum, one of the most prize-winning Highland pipers in the history of the instrument, on April 26th at the Woodlands Hotel near Broughty Ferry, Scotland, the original home of the […]

March 11, 2024

After an absence since 2019, the memorable Toronto Indoor Games will finally return on March 30th at its familiar downtown Toronto location at Moss Park Armoury. The event’s staging was interrupted by the two-year pandemic crisis and various logistical issues, but the 2024 edition promises to provide a full slate […]

Ian Green, the founder and manager of the Celtic music record label Greentrax, died in Edinburgh on March 10, 2024, at the age of 90. From the 1980s onward, Greentrax captured almost all of the greatest pipe bands, solo pipers and even solo pipe band drummers of the era, becoming […]

March 10, 2024

Kevin R. Blandford Memorial of Rancho Cucamonga, California, won both Grade 3 events at the Phoenix Scottish Games. Conditions at Gilbert Regional Park for early March in Arizona were ideal: 75°F (24°C) on Saturday, though an intense sun made it feel warmer, while a strong breeze on Sunday kept temperatures cooler, around 68°F (20°C). The event opened the outdoor contest season for the Western United States.

Alan Bevan of Abbotsford, British Columbia, was the winner of the 2024 Boney Music Memorial Invitational Competition & Recital held before a packed hall at the Seaforth Armoury as well as streamed live online by the British Columbia Pipers Association.

March 9, 2024

Bearsden, Scotland’s Willie McCallum was the overall winner of the 2024 Uist & Barra Invitational Solo Piping Competition after a tie with Sarah Muir of Glasgow, broken by a Piobaireachd preference. Only 50% of Hornpipe & Jig result counted toward the aggregate trophy.

The Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association membership brought in several new leaders for the organization at its ninety-third annual general meeting, held in Glasgow on March 9th. Robert Niven was voted in as the association’s new chairman, taking over from incumbent Kevin Reilly. Niven serves on the board of directors […]

March 8, 2024

Eilidh MacDonald asks female pipers and drummers: “If you imagine that it is 2044 and you think about women in pipe bands/piping/drumming: what does that ideal future look like, in particular at the highest level? What makes you hopeful? What do you wish for?” The responses are fascinating.

March 7, 2024

The Boney Music Memorial Invitational Competition & Recital was started in 2016 by Andrew “Boney” Bonar himself when he was waging his personal battle against cancer. The eighth rendition of one of the piping and drumming world’s most charitable events is set to take place on Saturday, March 9th, at […]

Callum Douglas is the new owner of the popular ES Session Chanter business, taking over production and sales from Lindsay Ellis, who co-created the product with the late Ross Scrim, both accomplished tool makers who crafted the unique instrument from stainless steel and aluminum. Callum Douglas is the pipe major […]

March 6, 2024

pipes|drums is delighted to include the first 10 piobaireachds in our exclusive Castle Recordings series of performances played and captured by Captain John A. MacLellan MBE in the early 1960s when he was head of the Army School of Piping at Edinburgh Castle.

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