Archive

Canadian piping and pipe band legend Ken Eller passed away on July 26, 2024, at the age of 77, following a long illness. A constant and ubiquitous presence on the Ontario piping and drumming scene, he gained worldwide fame as pipe-major of the Grade 1 Clan MacFarlane Pipe Band, one […]

Ross Miller is one of the world’s most creative and dynamically skilled pipers. He’s taking the stage with his band in Glasgow on Monday, August 12th, at the Hug & Pint on Great Western Road for a gig leveraging the throng of enthusiasts attending the Piping Live! Glasgow International Festival […]

Mount Hood Community College was once again the venue for the Portland Highland Games. The event has run for more than 60 years as part of the British Columbia Pipers Association’s competition circuit. Northwest Junior was the overall winner in the Grade 4 band competition, and Alastair Lee of Surrey, British Columbia, had the best day in the small Open Solo Piping events.

Artificial intelligence applications can potentially touch virtually every aspect of life as we know it. In a series of two articles, piper and computer scientist professional Colin Johnstone looks at two ways in which AI might positively assist in the process of judging our competitions.

The series of in-person and online competitions run throughout the year by CLASP (the Competition League for Amateur Solo Pipers) ended after the Inveraray Highland Games in Inveraray, Scotland, on July 17th. Thus, the overall champions for each grade were determined: Grade 1: Edmund Boland, Ireland (piobaireachd preference) Grade 2: […]

We’re pleased to bring pipes|drums readers, viewers and listeners videos of the Grade 2 medley competition at the 2024 Cambridge Highland Games, held on July 20th at Churchill Park in Cambridge, Ontario.

The Cambridge Highland Games, which often suffers from oppressive heat or torrential rain, enjoyed magnificent weather for a welcomed change as the Peel Regional Police Pipe Band won the five-band Grade 2 medley contest. Sean McKeown of Bowmanville, Ontario, was the Professional Solo Piper of the Day, and MacKenzie Chamberlain was the Professional Snare Drummer of the Day.

Ben Duncan of Edinburgh continued his run of success around the Scottish solo circuit by winning two of the three events at the Mull Highland Games under an incessant soaking with several hard downpours shaking things up for good measure. Angus D. MacColl of Benderloch, Scotland, won the Piobaireachd.

The relatively small and highly congenial Kamloops Highland Games returned to the British Columbia Pipers Association competition circuit for the first time since 2019 under warm and dry conditions in the scenic town in south-central British Columbia at the confluence of the North and South Thompson Rivers. There were no pipe band events but a good turnout by amateur soloists.

We continue with the seventh installment of 10 “Castle Recordings” piobaireachds in our exclusive series of performances captured on reel-to-reel tape at Edinburgh Castle in the early 1960s by the late Captain John A. MacLellan MBE.

With muggy temperatures soaring to the mid-30s in normally cool Cape Breton, the 159th Antigonish Highland Games were memorable and even historic on several fronts. The Grade 1 78th Highlanders (Halifax Citadel) made a strong statement by ditching waistcoats/vests and neckties for comfortable open-neck polo shirts, long-serving Atlantic Canada Pipe Band Association Chief Steward Rick Crawford made his retirement official with a special presentation, and Ajax, Ontario’s Sean McKeown ended 25 consecutive years of either Bruce or Alex Gandy winning the aggregate award in the Open/Professional Solo Piping.

After local funding had been cut for the Ulster Pipe Band & Drum-Major Championships earlier this year, the likelihood of the event happening in 2024 seemed remote. But the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association’s Northern Ireland Branch pulled out all the stops and has now secured the event for August […]

In honour of the 150th anniversary of the liberal arts institution’s founding, the Minnesota Scottish Fair & Highland Games returned to the Macalester College campus for the first time since 2003. The Macalester College Pipe Band took the top prize, the last event before the band competes at the European and World Championships in Scotland for the first time in its 75-year history. It was the band’s seventh win out of the last nine events dating back to 2023.

Ben Duncan of Edinburgh was nearly perfect, winning three events and placing second in the fourth, earning the overall Best Open Piper trophy at the Inveraray Highland Games, probably the biggest outdoor competition in the Scottish solo piping circuit. Steven Leask of Glasgow won the Open Piobaireachd.

As the band prepares to compete in Scotland, Greighlan Crossing won the top contested pipe band grade at a warm Skagit Valley Highland Games, winning both events. Alan Bevan was overall best in the Open solo piping, and Craig Sutherland, Cameron Bonar, and Jamie Kubasiewicz also came away with firsts. The events benefitted from Scottish judges in town as instructors at the Celtic Arts Foundation summer school.

The Grade 1 78th Highlanders (Halifax Citadel) of Nova Scotia have made a permanent switch to open-neck polo shirts as part of their uniform, choosing comfort over tradition and believed to be the first top-grade band to make the switch in the name of good playing and safety. “It was […]