Archive
“Leadership is often chaos. It’s often outside their comfort zone. And there’s generally a lot of collateral damage. It’s no different in pipe bands.” – James Laughlin
With just more than a week’s notice, the organizers of the Cambridge Scottish Festival in Cambridge, Ontario, abruptly cancelled the event, leaving more than one hundred solo and band competitors without one of the larger contests in the Pipers & Pipe Band Society of Ontario’s competition season. A source said […]
Grade 2 at the 2026 World Championships this August in Glasgow will feature a total of 25 bands, triggering the RSPBA’s rule that competitions with 23 or more entries must be run in heats. Sources close to the matter have confirmed that Grade 2 bands will compete on Friday, split […]
The Penticton Scottish Festival in British Columbia’s scenic Okanagan Valley saw Cameron Bonar of Surrey, British Columbia, win the aggregate in the Open Solo Piping, while Malcolm Fuller gained the equivalent award in the Open Solo Snare Drumming. Band entries were sparse, with Robert Malcolm Memorial 4 winning both Grade 4 events against Kamloops.
It’s official: an assembly of 145 pipers and drummers from Australia and New Zealand performed in Melbourne City Square on July 5, 2026, to gain an official place in the Australian Book of Records for the largest all-female pipe band ever to perform. The record-setting performance was part of the […]
Dublin’s St. Laurence O’Toole won the 2026 All-Ireland Championship at St. Catherine’s Park, west of Dublin, outlasting Field Marshal Montgomery and Ravara in the three-band Grade 1 two-event competition.
SFU has performed their new medley several times at various games on the British Columbia Pipers’ Association circuit. It’s yet another fascinating and effective selection, with much of the band’s popular, trademark compositional and ensemble style intact, but with an injection of orchestration flair from the many creative minds in the band.
We mark the milestone with a list determined by experts . . .
The Alberta Society of Pipers & Drummers managed two of its bigger events in June: the Edmonton Scottish Society Highland Gathering on the 20th and the Red Deer Highland Games on the 27th. Daniel Lidgren of Calgary had excellent days at both competitions in the Professional solo piping, winning five […]
reat Lakes of Cleveland, Ohio, won the Grade 2 overall in the top band grade, while Capital City won Grade 4, and the 190th Highlanders won the well-entered Grade 5 competition at the 49th annual Ohio Scottish Games & Celtic Festival, which attracted a strong entry of 14 bands and 116 solo competitors. In the Open Solo Piping, Ryan Praskovich of Pittsburgh won the Piobaireachd; Dan Lyden, Timonium, Maryland, took the MSR; and Daniel Carr, Collingwood, Ontario, won both the Hornpipe & Jig and 6/8 March events.
Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada – June 28, 2026 – Cameron Bonar of Surrey, British Columbia, captured the Open Overall Piping title at the Kamloops Highland Games against a good field of contestants, including Ann Gray of Calgary, who made a welcome return to the boards after several years away. Entries […]
Highland Society of London Gold Medallist and two-time Glenfiddich Champion, Finlay Johnston of Glasgow, has been appointed to the teaching faculty of the Bachelor of Traditional Music (Piping) degree program, operated jointly by the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the National Piping Centre. Johnston succeeds Highland piping legend Willie McCallum […]
Field Marshal Montgomery of Northern Ireland won the 2026 European Pipe Band Championship against a field of seven other bands, with Northern Ireland’s Ravara not making the trip. It was Field Marshal Montgomery’s second major championship win of 2026, after winning the UK Championship in Belfast two weeks earlier. FMM also won their second consecutive drumming title.
Last year, IT whiz and pipe band supremo Matt Fraser combined his talents to create “MusoLink,” a free app for the piping and drumming community to record their practice routines, repertoire, goals and accomplishments. Now called “Octero,” the pipe-major of Melbourne’s Grade 1 Hawthorn is putting on another contest for […]
Field Marshal Montgomery’s new medley for 2026 is a six-and-a-half-minute epic journey through Gordon Duncan’s incredible library of musical brilliance. The selection of tunes and their arrangements pays homage to one of the most popular and profound creators in the Highland piping canon. The medley is intricate, nuanced and compelling, perfectly suited for an elite pipe band like Field Marshal Montgomery. In our conversation, Matt Wilson, Willie Glenholmes and Ben Duncan guide us through the band’s thought processes and objectives, and open our eyes and ears to the behind-the-scenes inner workings of a band at the top of their own creative game.