Archive
To get out in front of the annual post-World’s effort by many bands to find new leaders, the Grade 2 City of Edinburgh is already looking for its next leading-drummer after incumbent Simon Grant will step down amicably after the World Championships on August 16th. Grant chalked up his decision […]
Inveraray & District won the 2025 European Championship at South Inch Park, the third major competition of the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association’s four-championship season. Ulster Scottish of Philadelphia won Grade 2 and featured two other North American bands, North Stratton of Edmonton, Canada, and the Los Angeles Scots in the prize list.
Artificial intelligence technology is affecting virtually every element of life, and, whether we ask for it or not, piping and drumming will not be excluded. Matt Fraser, Colin Johnstone and Brodie Watson-Massey discuss potential uses, benefits and implications of AI in the ultra-traditional art.
Brodie Watson-Massey is just starting his competitive piping trek, but even at the age of only 22, he’s amassed a collection of prizes that would be the envy most much older solo pipers. Originally from Edinburgh and now living in Glasgow, Watson-Massey’s first piping lessons were at George Heriot’s School, […]
Sandy Cameron won the Colonel Jock MacDonald Clasp for winners of the Dunvegan Medal at the Skye Gathering, and Alistair Brown won this year’s Dunvegan Medal. Steven Leask, Brodie Watson-Massey and Angus MacPhee also enjoyed top-drawer results.
We started the exclusive series of Castle Recordings made by Captain John A. MacLellan MBE in the 1960s in March 2024, and 151 tunes and 18 installments later, it’s fitting to wrap the series with a brief recorded conversation with Colin MacLellan. Colin came to us with the idea of […]
In his day, Captain John A. MacLellan MBE attended not a few black-tie celebration dinners in Edinburgh and Glasgow where some of history’s greatest pipers – including himself – would perform. Since 2011, the Captain John A. MacLellan MBE Memorial Dinner & Recital Competition has become probably the premier event […]
Stuart Liddell of Inveraray, Scotland, was the winner of the 2025 MacCrimmon Trophy at the 54th annual Festival Interceltique de Lorient, the annual solo piping competition that combines Breton, Irish and Scottish music events. Each competitor was invited to the event by winning various qualifying events worldwide.
Callum Beaumont won the overall trophy in the Senior solo piping at the annual Aboyne Highland Games in Scotland’s scenic Royal Deeside region, winning the Piobaireachd and Strathspey & Reel. Willie McCallum also had a fine day, winning the March and enjoying a second in both the Piobaireachd and Hornpipe & Jig. Seventeen competed.
The 72nd Ulster Pipe Band Championships were held at West Strand Bay in an ideal setting just beside the beach, and Manorcunningham won Grade 2, the top contested event of the day. The only Grade 1 band to play was Ravara after Closkelt elected to withdraw.
Maxville, Ontario – August 2, 2025 – Ulster Scottish of Philadelphia won the aggregate prize in the Grade 2 band competition, the highest-level contested event at the 2025 Glengarry Highland Games, held in sunny and warm (but not hot) weather that attracted a large crowd. Ulster Scottish won the MSR […]
Ian K. MacDonald of Whitby, Ontario, had the most aggregate points across the five solo events to win the North American Solo Piping Championship at the 2025 Glengarry Highland Games, and Blair Beaton of Scotia, New York, won the equivalent overall trophy in the Professional Snare Drumming.
Gordon McCready of Renfrew, Scotland, continued his 2025 solo piping success by winning the overall trophy at the Dundonald Games in South Ayrshire in sunny and hot weather.
Bruce Gandy of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, won the Bar to the Piobaireachd Society Gold Medal (Canada), and Joe Biggs from Ajax, Ontario, won the Piobaireachd Society Gold Medal (Canada) at the annual piobaireachd competitions held at the St. Michael & All Angels Anglican Church in the small farming community in the eastern part of Canada’s most populous province.
The 150th anniversary of the birth of the great piper, leader, gentleman and composer John “Jock” McLellan was marked at a packed official opening of the John McLellan DCM 150th Anniversary Photo Exhibition in Dunoon’s famed Burgh Hall on July 31st. The exhibition will run until August 30th, the last […]
The march-past has been a tradition at UK pipe band competitions for as long as they’ve existed, but for the first time, North American-style “massed bands” will be “trialled” at a Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association major championship, the European, in Perth, Scotland, on August 9th. It is not known […]