Archive
Lochnell Castle, Argyll, Scotland – October 10, 2026 – With a second in the Piobaireachd and a third in the MSR, Thomas Fallon of Edinburgh won the 2026 Lochnell Championship at the annual invitational competition organized by the Argyllshire Gathering Trust. Eight pipers competed at the event. Magnus Stone of […]
The City of Angels won the top prize at the 2026 Seaside Highland Games, with its Grade 3 band taking the top spot and its new Grade 5 band making its debut over two days of competition. Founded in 2021, City of Angels has grown into a two-band organization in just five years, with the Grade 5 band representing a year of preparation and development.
“This is a severely pentatonic tune, low G, A, B, D, E, gapped at the third interval of the scale. The way the theme is varied between the various different settings shows how a regular tonally straightforward tune could be developed through singlings, doublings, treblings and such, and variety of expression achieved, and illustrates how the various master players would treat a common theme.”
The Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association has reversed its earlier claim that BBC Scotland cancelled its coverage of the World Pipe Band Championships, confirming that the public broadcaster has not yet made a final decision on whether to continue its popular 2027 livestream. The RSPBA’s clarification aligns with what BBC […]
Liam Horne of Wise, Virginia, won the 43rd annual Nicol-Brown Amateur Invitational Piping Championship, taking first prizes in both the Piobaireachd and 6/8 March competitions to earn the coveted title with 20 points. The competition was held at the St. Mark Presbyterian Church.
Ashley McMichael of Antrim, Northern Ireland, was named the 2026 Northern Ireland Piper of the Year after winning the Piobaireachd and MMSSRR events at the annual Ballymena competition.
The 2026 Pipe-Major Alasdair Gillies Memorial Challenge Recital was another spectacular night of incredible musical creativity and technical brilliance by five of the world’s greatest Highland pipers. Callum Beaumont, Alasdair Henderson, Finlay Johnston, Angus D. MacColl and Connor Sinclair each performed for 15-20 minutes, every second of which had the packed Strathclyde Suite at […]
We continue with the second and final part of our exclusive conversation with 2026 Highland Society of London Gold Medallists Calum Brown (Northern Meeting) and Sean McKeown (Argyllshire Gathering). Part 1 showed a tremendous amount of commonality between the two pipers, despite the 18-year gap between the 27-year-old Brown and […]
BBC Scotland has doubled down on its claim that it still hasn’t decided whether to livestream the 2027 World Pipe Band Championships, while the RSPBA has also reiterated that the BBC has axed the program due to budget cuts. After an ambiguous article in The Times and social media chatter […]
We got together with them by video to talk about their victories, each realizing a lifelong goal as they set their sights on new piping objectives, but with the satisfaction that they’ve already summitted their first major climb.
Like warming sunshine in the long Canadian Prairies winter, the Saskatchewan Pipe Band Association has scheduled a series of fall events for pipers and drummers, including online workshops with Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association judges Terry Lee and Duncan Millar and a November Mini Gathering. The two Zoom sessions will […]
Willie McCallum of Bearsden, Scotland, emerged as the Premier overall winner; Finlay Johnston of Glasgow won the Premier Grade Piobaireachd and the Captain John MacLellan Gold Medal; and Sarah Muir of East Kilbride, Scotland, won the Premier MSR and Captain John MacLellan Piper Statue at the 13th annual Captain John A. MacLellan MBE Memorial Piping Competition at the Army School of Bagpipe Music & Highland Drumming at Inchdrewer House.
Nineteen-year-old Nicholas Weston of Auckland emerged as the eighth New Zealand Young Piper of the Year, gaining the overall Under-21 title against 12 other competitors.
The long-running Northern Ireland Piper of the Year Solo Piping Competition returns to the Adair Arms Hotel in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, on Saturday, October 10th, with 10 pipers competing for the 2026 title. The event began in 1979 at the Tullymore House Hotel in Broughshane, Northern Ireland, when Norman Dodds […]
BBC Scotland has re-confirmed to pipes|drums that it has not decided on the World Pipe Band Championships broadcasts, including the popular livestream available free to a worldwide audience. The tentative status of the programming aligns with previous years, when decisions were not announced until much closer to the event. After […]
The leaders of the newly minted Grade 1 band discuss getting to the top level and how they plan to remain and thrive there.