Archive
Jenny Hazzard reviews the St. Laurence O’Toole World’s Wednesday ‘Evolution’ concert at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, August 11, 2010
Thursday at Glasgow’s International Festival of Piping brings unexpectedly warm – no, positively hot -weather and equally incandescent performances to match. Meaghan Proudfoot sheds some light on the day.
Four of the world’s very best purveyors of light music and piobaireachd put their entertainment and competitive skills to the test at the annual Lord Todd Invitational Solo Piping Recital-Challenge at the University of Strathclyde. Ultimately, Angus MacColl of Benderloch, Scotland, was considered the best of a great lot by a selection of unidentified judges scattered through the audience of more than 500.
The last day before the World’s, the weather holds and there’s a spring in the step around Glasgow as Meaghan Proudfoot recants her day from the International Festival of Piping
Bruce Gandy was named the overall winner of the Masters Invitational Solo Piping Competition, held at the National Piping Centre. Gandy’s two second-prizes . . .
The pipe band world lost a true great with the passing of legendary snare drummer Robert “Bobby” Rea on August 13, 2010. Twice winner of the World Solo Drumming Championship (1966 and 1984), and lead-drummer of several top bands, Rea’s mark on pipe band drumming in Northern Ireland is perhaps […]
With so much attention placed on Grade 1 at the World Pipe Band Championships, it’s a shame that other events are often all but ignored. Grade 2 at the 2010 World’s was one of the hardest-fought in recent memory, with 39 bands across two heats competing for 12 spots in the Medley Final. We would have loved to listen to the Grade 1 Medley Final, too, but pipes|drums decided that, since the BBC would be covering it amply, we would bring our readers/viewers the entirety of the Grade 2 Final, showcasing selections often every bit as creative as those heard in the top grade and, indeed, several performance not being out of place in Grade 1. We hope that you enjoy these 12 performances, in order . . .
pipes|drums’ 2010 Pick The Six contest drew a record number of entries, with almost 3,000 readers testing their powers or prognostication and pipe band punditry to predict the top six places in the Grade 1 Final at this year’s . . .
About 40 of the world’s top solo pipers sit on the edge of their sporrans each year as they await the all-important order-of-plays for the Highland Society of London’s Gold Medal piobaireachd
The piper who famously played on the beaches of Normandy during the first wave of the Allied Forces’ invasion on June 6, 1944, has died in Devon, England, at the age of 88 after a stroke.
With a substantial number of withdrawals by those accepted for the upcoming Silver Medal competitions at Oban and Inverness, the Argyllshire Gathering will . . .
Chinese culture places great importance on symbols, and there are few luckier images than the dragon. Little did the Grade 3 Greighlan Crossing . . .
The Grade 1 Tayside Police Pipe Band of Dundee, Scotland, has dissolved after its pipe-major, David Clunie, resigned following . . .
Jim McGillivray continues his exclusive series with “The Royal Scottish Pipers’ Society,” one of the greatest marches ever composed – a tune from the pen of one of history’s most elusive and enigmatic subjects, Roderick Campbell. Subscribers to pipes|drums can enjoy a fascinating look into what’s known of Campbell’s life. Jim McGillivray also provides an instructional sound file of his own playing of the tune on the Deger pipe.
Euan MacCrimmon of Oban, Scotland, and Jenny Hazzard of Edinburgh enjoyed solid days at the annual Nairn Highland Games in the north . . .
Jori Chisholm of Seattle won the P-M James MacGregor Cup for Best Overall Piper at the Glenisla Highland Games on a day that started wet and cold, but cleared . . .