Archive
On the second day of competitions, the overall Champion Piper of the 2025 solo piping competition of the Scottish Pipers Society of London was Stuart Liddell of Inveraray, Scotland, who had the best aggregate over the Premier Grade events, and thus gained a repeat invitation to the 2026 Glenfiddich Championships next October, joining Bratach Gorm winner Finlay Johnston.
Finlay Johnston of Glasgow won the Bratach Gorm at the annual Scottish Piping Society of London’s solo competitions held at the Caledonian Club in the UK capital. It was his second consecutive Bratach Gorm victory.
We continue our conversation with 2025 World Solo Drumming Champion Kerr McQuillan and Peoples Ford Boghall & Bathgate Caledonia piper Chris Coates and their analysis and insight into the Hornpipe & Jig performance – the duet, as they stress – that helped to gain the big prize in Glasgow on […]
The Vale of Atholl Pipe Band of Pitlochry, Scotland, was founded in 1906, making it one of the world’s longest-running piping and drumming organizations, but its Grade 2 band is now the UK’s latest casualty with the announcement that the group has disbanded “with immediate effect.” While a blow for […]
Hamish Hepburn of Christchurch won the Silver Chanter MSR, and Greg Wilson took the aggregate award in the top events at the 49th Silver Chanter Solo Piping Competition held at St. Andrew’s College.
As they analyze the Hornpipe & Jig performance that helped gain McQuillan the 2025 World Solo Drumming Championship, we learn that it was as much about sympatico inter-personal understanding as it was about two mutually talented musicians gaining an invaluable extra edge as two friends doing their thing.
As reported, the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association announced that registration/membership fees for 2026 would increase by 5% for both UK and non-UK bands wishing to compete in the association’s sanctioned events. The fee hike was the second in three years. In 2022, the RSPBA increased membership registration fees by […]
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,” […]