Archive

Brave New Music is a chronological biography of the fine young piper, classical musician, and electronic artist Bennett, who died in 2005 at 33. With Bennett’s premature death, I was worried this would be a difficult read. Within the first few pages, I realized that I was much more likely to turn the pages while laughing or smiling and thinking, “Ah, so that’s how, why, when or where he did that . . . ” than feel anything close to gloom.

Cameron Bonar was the winner of the ninth annual Boney Music Memorial Invitational Competition & Recital held again at the Seaforth Armoury, playing against Nick Hudson, Houston; Zephan Knichel, Surrey, British Columbia; and Craig Sutherland, Perth, Scotland.

The Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association has announced the “World Youth Pipe Band Championship” that will take place at the World Championships on Friday, August 15th. The news was made public at around 5 pm GMT on Friday, March 14th, with no more details than that. However, sources within the […]

John Cairns loves a detailed plan. Anyone who has seen his in-depth Bagpipe Solutions series of instructional manuals will recognize the military precision of his personality. Cairns recently announced he would step down as pipe-major of the Peel Regional Police Pipe Band at the end of the 2025 competition season. […]

For the first time in its 142-year history, the Grade 1 Police Scotland & Federation will sit out a competition season. Members of the band met to discuss plans, and decided that calling off the season was the most practical decision as the group continues to search for a suitable […]

The escalating trade war between the United States and Canada has created a groundswell of patriotic resistance by Canadians after their southern neighbours’ president initiated the battle with their historically most significant trading partner. A “buy Canadian” movement has included pressures to resist travelling to the United States, to put […]

Since 2020, the Western United States Pipe Band Association has seen no fewer than 12 Celtic Festivals and Highland Games vanish due to poor attendance, high venue costs, and a scarcity of volunteers as prevailing factors. As with many worldwide, some of the remaining event organizers are considering hiring a […]

Winning both the MSR and Hornpipe & Jig events, Blair Brown from Grade 1 St. Thomas Alumni was the overall winner of the 2025 Pacific Rim Solo Snare Drumming Championship against eight other contestants.

A record 94 bands from 144 schools competed at the annual Scottish Schools Pipe Band Championships at the William McIlvanney Campus. Sgoil Bhàgh a’Chaisteil from the Isle of Barra won the Freestyle and £2500, the top prize at the event.

The annual Redding Solo Piping Competitions were held over two days at the Red Lion Hotel. Gavin Guidotti of Medford, Oregon, won the Grade aggregate prize, Grade 2 overall going to Logan Gorsuch, Grade 3 to Katherine Strausser, and the Grade 4 aggregate trophy to Emma Thomsen. The Fred Rutledge Memorial Piper of the Day was Everett Johnson, who won three light music first prizes in Grade 4—the first competition of his young competitive career.

For International Women’s Day 2025, pipes|drums wanted to hear from pipers and drummers worldwide. Piper Eilidh MacDonald coordinated the event, and nearly 50 players of all ages and abilities contributed videos. Throughout March 8, 2025, their thoughts were carried as stories and reels on pipes|drums’ Instagram and Facebook accounts. To […]

Members attending the 2025 annual general meeting of the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association soundly defeated a motion to create a new judging format, a move that would have altered a system created more than 50 years ago and used globally. The motion proposed replacing the current two piping, one […]

Invercargill, New Zealand – March 6-7, 2025 – After two days of competitions, it was Manawatu Scottish who were awarded the 2025 New Zealand Championship against a field of five other Grade 1 bands. St. Andrews College of Christchurch won the Grade 2 championship. Manawatu’s win ended the five-year run […]

For decades, pipes|drums has spotlighted not only women and girls in piping and drumming but also the challenges they have encountered and continue to face as our tradition-based piping and drumming culture moves away from male-dominated mores that naturally evolved from military and conservative roots. For International Women’s Day (IWD) […]

Shotts & Dykehead Caledonia have been one of the UK off-season’s most prominent newsmakers, and they look to continue to keep the spotlight focused with tickets going on sale for the 2025 “Pre-World’s Concert” at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. Concert organizers Glasgow Skye Association confirmed the event, which had […]

Piping and drumming zealots in the Northern Hemisphere can go on a two-day bender of pipe band competition with the Royal New Zealand Pipe Bands’ Association’s free live stream of the New Zealand Championships over 48 hours March 7-8 (New Zealand time) in Invercargill, New Zealand. Some 57 bands from […]