Archive

After reviewing the applications from several pipers, the Jimmy McIntosh Piobaireachd Scholarship committee settled on Peter Lui of Nashville as the recipient of the prestigious award to assist him in the study of piobaireachd in “the Balmoral tradition.” Lui will begin his instruction later in June in Pittsburgh with a […]

Joining the growing trend of associations organizing and staging outdoor competitions independently, the Pipers & Pipe Band Society of Ontario held the inaugural Hamilton Gathering, the organization’s first sanctioned event of the 2025 season, on the grounds of the Scottish Rite in Ontario’s steel city.

Numerous pipe band albums used to be released every year, but largely because amateur recordings of pipe bands are everywhere all the time, thanks to smartphones and other retail technology, the release of a commercial professional pipe band recording today is news. Following a pre-release exclusively for those who contributed […]

August 8, 2025, is the 150th anniversary of the birth of John “Jock” McLellan of Dunoon, Scotland. Events are planned to pay homage to one of Highland piping’s greatest composers and leaders. Already, two never-before-published compositions by the creator of such classics as “Lochanside,” “Southall,” and “The Road to the […]

We continue with the seventeenth installment of “Castle Recordings” piobaireachds in our exclusive series of performances captured on reel-to-reel tape at Edinburgh Castle in the early 1960s by the late Captain John A. MacLellan MBE. “Clan MacNab’s Salute” “Duncan MacRae of Kintail’s Lament” “Duntroon’s Salute” “The Laird of Contullich’s Lament” […]

The Chicago Highland Games and the Glengarry Highland Games in Maxville, Ontario, are the two largest piping, drumming and pipe band events in North America, and each is seeing strong entries from competitors. Thirty-nine bands are entered for the June 14th Chicago Highland Games, only one less than in 2024. Entries […]

The legal dispute between the Pipers & Pipe Band Society of Ontario and its directors and PPBSO member and accredited adjudicator Andrew Berthoff has been resolved. “The Pipers & Pipe Band Society of Ontario and its directors are committed to transparency and fairness in corporate governance, in keeping with the […]

The most anticipated pipe band record of 2025, People’s Ford Boghall & Bathgate Caledonia’s Cabar Fèidh, will go on sale to the general public on Friday, June 6th, in digital download, CD and vinyl formats. The record captures the band’s sold-out August 14, 2024, “Cabar Fèidh” Pre-World’s performance at the […]

To focus on growth and allow Pipe-Major Matt MacIsaac to recover from a shoulder injury, Ontario’s Grade 2 St. Andrew’s College Association announced a hiatus to take “a proactive step toward long-term success . . . to focus on recruitment, community engagement, and development.” MacIsaac hasn’t been able to lead […]

Finlay MacDonald: “We can talk about the music all we want, and the programming, and the diversity of the music, but it brings people together. It’s a focal point. We can’t underestimate the strength of that on its own, and the fact that, yes, for that week you come here, you’re going to meet people who are like-minded and make you feel part of that community.”

Charles-David Mitchell, Ernest Cho, Sophie Stringer and Lou Lanaro were the aggregate Grade 1, 2, 3, and 4 winners, respectively, in the Competition League for Amateur Solo Pipers (CLASP) May 2025 Live Online Solo Piping Competition.

We met Finlay MacDonald and John Mulhearn for a two-part discussion on highlights and changes on tap for Piping Live! 2025, as well as some of the challenges, issues and rewards accompanying the planning and production of the world’s biggest celebration of piping.

Alan Jones of Hamilton, New Zealand, has studied and written about pipe band ensembles for more than a decade. His latest piece strives to define and clarify the Ensemble judge’s role and the qualities he believes are required of the judges themselves.

In January 2025, Scotland’s National Piping Centre quietly launched the NPC Clubs program, which allows new and experienced pipers ages seven to seventeen to learn in small groups across Glasgow and the organization’s McPhater Street facilities. With the program’s success, six new NPC Club tutors will be recruited over the […]

Twenty-six bands competed at the Co. Fermanagh Pipe Band Championships at the Broadmeadow Playing Fields, and it was St. Joseph’s Clondalkin that took straight first-place rankings to win the Grade 2 event against four other entrants. Ravara was the only entry in the Grade 1 competition. Bands could challenge up from their assigned grade if they could meet the content submission requirements.

2024 World Champions Inveraray & District started their season with straight firsts at the third annual Dollar Pipe Band & Drum-Majors Competition, organized jointly by the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association’s Dundee, Perth & Angus Branch and Dollar Academy. Inveraray won against two other Grade 1 bands and three Grade 2 bands that played up in the MSR event. Grade 1 Johnstone had entered but did not play.