Archive
Stuart Liddell of Inveraray, Scotland, was the overall winner of the 2025 Glenfiddich Invitational Solo Piping Championships, held for the fifty-second time in the Great Hall of Blair Castle. It was Liddell’s fourth time winning the most prestigious award in solo Highland piping.
The Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association has increased membership fees by 5% for bands wishing to compete in RSPBA-sanctioned events. The across-the-board annual band registration fee increase applies to UK-resident and “overseas” competitors. The association’s rationale for the fee hike was to “support essential activities,” outlined as “administrative and financial […]
We continue with the second and final part of our conversation with 2025 Highland Society of London Gold Medallists Steven Leask (Argyllshire Gathering) and Brodie Watson-Massey (Northern Meeting). In Part 1, they talked about their experience the day they competed and discovered they’d won and provided sound advice to pipers […]
The irrepressible piper Ross Miller is taking his band on the UK road, when the Ross Miller Trio launches a tour in Leeds, the first time the band has ventured into England. The award-winning trio consists of Miller on pipes, fiddler Charlie Stewart, and guitarist Graeme Armstrong. The tour will […]
The Competing Pipers’ Association has updated its code of conduct that results from competitions judged by those who are not members of the UK’s Solo Piping Judges Association will be ignored when the organization makes grading decisions for members. The move is in response to a motion passed at the […]
As with Jamie Forrester and Nick Hudson when they won their 2022 Gold Medals, we wanted to hear from Leask and Watson-Massey about their experiences on the way to, during and after their history-making performances.
Kerr McQuillan of Peoples Ford Boghall & Bathgate Caledonia won the 2025 World Solo Snare Drumming Championship held at Glasgow Caledonian University and organized by the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association. It was his second time winning the highest achievement award for individual pipe band drummers on earth.
In this final installment, he discusses the expanding world of Highland bagpipe music and performance, moving from a strict competition-oriented tradition to increasingly diverse perspectives on both composition and accessibility to a wider audience.
Renowned piper Matt MacIsaac has resigned as the Director of Piping & Drumming at St. Andrew’s College in Aurora, Ontario, effective at the end of the 2025-’26 academic year. MacIsaac said that he decided to leave the position, which he called “one of the best piping gigs in the world,” […]
The Grade 1 Johnstone Pipe Band of Johnstone, Scotland, has dissolved. The decision, collectively made by the band’s members, comes less than a week after Grade 1 Closkelt of Northern Ireland elected to disband, rather than continue to pursue the arduous task of building up enough members and quality to […]
“This is a very satisfying collection. The old and the new rub shoulders comfortably, and Farrelly’s own commitment to rooting out good sources and creating easy-to-play arrangements is evident throughout.” Exclusively for pipes|drums subscribers, the renowned piper and multi-instrumentalist assesses the new collection from the Irish piper, Tim Farrelly
The Seaforth Armoury in Vancouver will be the venue for the inaugural Jack Lee Amateur Invitational Piping Competition on March 28, 2026, a new annual contest put on by the British Columbia Pipers’ Association to celebrate amateur piping, piobaireachd, and North America’s all-time greatest all-around piper. Each competitor will play […]
After a year of qualifying contests around the globe, 30 of the world’s best pipe band snare drummers will vie for the 2025 World Solo Drumming Championship on Saturday, October 18th, at Glasgow Caledonian University in Glasgow. The contestants competed in seven events in the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association’s […]
Benderloch, Scotland – October 11, 2025 – Winning the Piobaireachd and placing fourth in the MSR was enough to make Magnus Stone of Natick, Massachusetts, the overall champion at the 2025 2025 Lochnell Intermediate Solo Piping Competition, an event held at the 16th-century Lochnell Castle, on Ardmucknish Bay. The event […]
Grade 1 Closkelt of Northern Ireland has announced the complete and immediate dissolution of the band, leaving the UK with only seven in the top grade. Closkelt Pipe-Major David Chesney explained the decision was “due to a combination of internal and external factors.” “While today marks a sad milestone for […]
Alex Pavlovic of Houston was the overall winner of the 2025 Nicol-Brown Amateur Invitational Piping Competition against a field of nine other top amateur solo pipers from North America, held at Saint Mark Presbyterian Church. Pavlovic won the aggregate with firsts in the Piobaireachd and MSR events.