We continue our exclusive five-part pipes|drums Interview with Eric Rigler of Los Angeles, by far the most-heard Celtic musician in history. In Part 1 of the pipes|drums Interview with Los Angeles native Eric Rigler, he discussed his early years and the factors that led him to want to move to Scotland to study piping and […]
Matt Fraser hopes to make practice a win-win for pipers and drummers who want to gain an edge using his MusoLink app. The pipe-major of Grade 1 Hawthorn of Melbourne, Australia, launched the MusoLink app last November, and now, as the World Championships and other big-time competitions approach for bands […]
It’s probably purely coincidental that the Commonwealth Pipes & Drums logo features a Minuteman, a Revolutionary War private soldier ready to fight for fair representation. Still, after a six-month process, the Massachusetts-based band will be permitted to compete at the 2025 World Championships as the Grade 3A group they are under the Eastern United States Pipe Band Association, the band’s home association.
Ulster Scottish from Philadelphia was the top winner at the 2025 Chicago Highland Games, the Midwest Pipe Band Association’s largest sanctioned event of the year, and one of the biggest pipe band competitions by the number of contestants outside of the United Kingdom. Thirty-nine bands competed in sunny weather at DuPage County Fairgrounds.
Father’s Day 2025 is the perfect time to officially announce the new “Gandy Bagpipe” by McCallum Bagpipes, an exact reproduction of the 1939 instrument played for many years by Ray Gandy in Victoria, British Columbia, then by Bruce Gandy and, most recently, by Alex Gandy. That makes three generations of Gandy […]
King Charles III has made Northern Ireland’s George Ussher of Lisburn, Northern Ireland, a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) and Roderick Buchanan of Lochgilphead, Scotland, and Angus Tulloch of Kingussie, Scotland, Members of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2025 King’s Birthday Honours. […]
In the 25 years since the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the National Piping Centre introduced a Bachelor of Arts Music Degree Course in Highland pipes, many musically accomplished and highly educated pipers have gone on to make a career with their art, including Steven Blake, John Dew, Ross Miller, […]
The Bellingham Scottish Gathering near the USA-Canada border typically sees several Canadian bands make the journey, but this year, none attended the event at Marine Park, although several amateur solo pipers made the quick trip across the boundary. Canadian pipe bands, so far, are not generally attending American competitions due to ongoing difficulties between the two countries.