Archive
Winning both events, Sean McKeown of Toronto was the clear winner of the 2026 Livingstone Invitational Solo Piping Competition held at the Officers’ Mess of the John Weir Foote Armoury.
Winning the Piobaireachd and placing in the MSR and Jig events, Colin MacNeill of Edinburgh was the overall winner of the 2026 Royal Scottish Pipers’ Society Annual Solo Piping Competition at the RSPS Rooms at 127 Rose Street North Lane in Scotland’s capital city centre.
After a long, cold, lonely winter, the bell finally rings at Gourock, Scotland, on Sunday, May 10th for the beginning of the northern hemisphere’s 2026 outdoor pipe band season. Fifty-one bands across all grades are entered at the “minor” RSPBA competition, governed by the association’s Glasgow & West of Scotland […]
Any pipe band that can last 100 years deserves a blowout celebration, and Northern Ireland’s Grade 3A Cloughfin is marking its centenary with a concert at the Burnavon Theatre in Cookstown on May 9th. Not only will there be performances by the band, but they’ve got Stuart Liddell and Steven […]
The 2026 edition of Piping Live! is adding drumming to its programming with the Drum Corps Series, with one of four Grade 1 pipe band percussion sections performing at the festival’s Centre Stage at 1 pm beginning on Monday, August 10th. Monday: Simon Fraser University Tuesday: Shotts & Dykehead Caledonia […]
Sarah Muir of East Kilbride, Scotland, was the overall Premier and A-Grade winner at the annual Highlands & Islands Solo Piping Competition, organized by the Netherlorn Piping Society and held indoors at Oban High School. Muir won the MSR and was third in the Piobaireachd, and was the only competitor to feature in both prize lists. Brodie Watson-Massey of Edinburgh won the Piobaireachd.
Nick Hudson of Houston was the overall winner of the 2026 Ian Swinton Open Solo Piping Competition, with a first in the Piobaireachd and a third in the MSR, the only player to feature in both prize lists. Jack Williamson of Topeka, Kansas, won the MSR event.
Steven Shedden of Melbourne, Australia, won the 2026 RSPBA Oceania Pipe Band Snare Drumming Championship held at St. Andrew’s College, the fifth event in the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association’s eight-contest league to determine a Champion of Champions title.
2023 World Champions Peoples Ford Boghall & Bathgate Caledonia are set to perform on Saturday, May 2nd, in Aberdeen, an annual pre-season event presented by the Bucksburn & District Pipe Band organization. The concert will be held at the Aberdeen Music Hall, starting at 7:30 pm. Tickets are priced at […]
As the piping and drumming world searches for ways to convince more young people to learn, we realized that, with a little focus, there’s a ready-made benefit that could be compelling to any parent not yet convinced.
The redoubtable Ross Miller is dropping his latest single, “Would Paddy Not Dance?”, featuring his familiar-but-always-new Highland piping creativity, on April 30th across all major streaming platforms. The track isn’t just Miller on the Highland pipes, but combines everyone in the Ross Miller Band: Charlie Stewart (fiddle), Graeme Armstrong (guitar), […]
The big winners at the 2026 Atlantic Canada Piobaireachd Challenge were James MacHattie from Summerside and Nova Scotia’s Bruce Gandy, winning the two Professional events at the annual competition held at the College of Piping and the Scott MacAulay Performing Arts Centre. Brady Webb won both Grade 1 amateur events.
Our StarBox feature has focused on pipers until now, but we thought it made sense to feature the reigning World Solo Drumming Champion as the first drummer to open his drum case and any other items he might carry. Besides, he’s also a superb piper . . .
radley Parker of Glasgow was the overall winner of the 2026 Pipe-Major’s Wheel of Fortune Invitational Solo Piping & Humour Competition, held at the Danderhall Miners’ Club before the customary appreciative and lively audience. Parker won both the Medley and the MSR events.
The private, independent boarding and day school for boys from grades 5 to 12 has one of the few full-time piping/drumming teaching positions for non-College/University-level institutions in North America, and the only one in Canada. The full-time position was created in 1998.
We continue our exclusive 2026 Set Tunes Series by Willie Donaldson with “Ewin of the Battles,” a brief but challenging piece suitable for pipers of virtually every ability. Donaldson summarizes the short piobaireachd as “a spare little tune throwing much emphasis on high G, perhaps to evoke what Bob Brown […]