Archive
The Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association, after more than six weeks went by since several bands complained that Bagad Brieg exceeded the maximum six minutes by six seconds in their Grade 2 qualifying heat at the 2012 World Pipe Band Championships . . .
The Grade 2 400 RCAF Squadron Pipes & Drums have made a change at the leading-drummer spot, with Mark Passmore . . .
The Ottawa Branch of the Pipers & Pipe Band Society of Ontario held its first event of the fall/winter amateur knockout series at the HMCS Bytown Naval Officers’ Mess in downtown Ottawa. Competitors earn points at events through the . . .
Steven McWhirter, leading-drummer of Grade 1 Inveraray & District, won his third World Solo Drumming Championship, and his second straight title, against a crowded array of most of the planet’s best pipe band drummers. The Final round, which comprised MSR and . . .
Roderick “Roddy” MacDonald, one of the most important figures in the evolution of piping and drumming in the United States, died after an illness on October 23, 2012, in Sarasota, Florida. His was a life of a rare all-rounder whose career spanned solo piping, pipe bands, pipe-majoring, teaching, adjudicating, composing, […]
Jamie Hawke was the overall winner of the designated New Zealand Solo Piping Championship events at the Highland Piping Society of Canterbury’s annual Silver Chanter competitions held at St Andrews College. Graeme Bryce . . .
Bruce Burt Sr., the well-known and accomplished piper from Detroit, died on October 22, 2012, at home in St. Petersburg, Florida, in his seventieth year. He started on the pipes with Pipe-Major Walter Rose at age nine with the St. Andrew’s Society of Detroit Pipe Band. At age 15 he […]
Iain Speirs of Edinburgh took home the overall prize at the 2012 Glenfiddich Invitational Solo Piping Competition, held once again in a crowded Great Hall of Blair Castle, the home of . . .
Think a police pipe band has it easy when it comes to funds and sponsorship? Think again. When a band has a sponsorship there’s a duty to represent the sponsor’s brand well. And if it’s a police-sponsored band, the pressure is on for every member to produce the playing goods, but also to uphold the image with the public of a serving police officer. As the alignment of pipe bands and police forces are under intense scrutiny in Scotland with the April 2013 unification into a single Scottish Police Service, pipers and drummers in any band, whether sponsored or not, can learn from what the Grade 1 Peel Regional Police must do to keep the sponsors pleased.
An innovative adjustable stock that allows less-experienced pipers to shut off the flow to their chanter with a twist, allowing them to . . .
The familiar international array of competitors assembled for the Royal Braemar Highland Gathering, where 36 pipers vied for the prizes. Gordon Walker was the overall winner, winning both light music events . . .
In this, the fourth of five instalments to his pipes|drums Interview, we delve into Michael Grey’s substantial recording accomplishments, which comprise 10 solo CDs and about twice as many albums done with pipe bands, including three as a pipe-major. There have been few, if an, Highland pipers with as long a list of recordings and, still in his forties, there are undoubtedly more. In Part 4, Grey discusses many of the projects, how they came about ad where he gets his creative inspiration, while also openly analyzing the challenge of reaching non-piping audiences with the limitations and preconception of the instrument and its music.
The new-look House of Edgar-Shotts & Dykehead under recently appointed Pipe-Major Ryan Canning have started the rebuilding process with the addition of . . .
Organizers of “The Livingstone” have announced the format for the new-look competition, and confirmed that so far six pipers have accepted their invitation . . .
The contestants for the Final of the Northern Meeting Silver Medal have been determined after two qualifying heats this morning, Going through to the last round are . . .
Willie McCallum won his fourth Silver Star MSR, and Euan MacCrimmon added the Northern Meeting Highland Society of London Gold Medal to his expansive collection of piobaireachd . . .