Archive

Drumming for Drinks, maybe the most inventive and fun event in the history of piping and drumming history, will not be held in 2024 and the foreseeable future. The celebrated day of performance and revelry for drummers, pipers and music lovers of all kinds was first held in 2007 and […]

Greighlan Crossing won both Grade 3 band competitions, which were the top contested events, and Zephan Knichel had the overall best day in the Open solo piping, winning the MSR and placing second in the Piobaireachd.

Edinburgh’s Ben Duncan won the senior solo piping overall at the annual Markinch Highland Games, held in decent weather in the Kingdom of Fife. Duncan also won the MSR and was second in the Piobaireachd, while Glasgow’s Mike Fitzhenry won the ceol mor.

After three years, the National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland’s Emerging Composers programs has proven to be an excellent success, attracting musical works from some of the world’s most creative young piping minds. NYPBS Director Steven Blake confirmed that the initiative has received funding for 2024. The funding will allow […]

The committee that decides their fate – at least for this year – has informed the 100 or so competitive solo pipers who applied to participate in the Highland Society of London Gold Medal and Silver Medal competitions at the Argyllshire Gathering and the Northern Meeting. Decisions are predicated on […]

With four out of four firsts, New Zealand’s Adam Waghorn was the obvious aggregate winner in the Grade 1 events at the CLASP – Competition League for Amateur Solo Pipers’ Live Online solo competition, and Japan’s Mariko Arimoto, Adam Aitchison of Scotland, and Germany’s Jürgen Schrall took the overall Grade 2, Grade 3 and Grade 4 prizes, respectively, showing the worldwide appeal of the event.

The positive impact the late Skye Richendrfer had on the piping, pipe band drumming and Celtic music community in the Pacific Northwest continues to be experienced and celebrated, and the latest event is “A Celebration of Piping” on June 2nd at the Littlefield Celtic Center, the Celtic Arts Foundation’s state-of-the-art home […]

There are few places on earth as Celtic music-infused as the Canadian Maritime provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, where bagpipes intermingle with fiddles, bodhrans, keyboards and all manner of stringed instruments pretty much wherever you go. The New Brunswick Piobaireachd Club was formed in February […]

City of Angeles of Los Angeles won both Grade 3 competitions in the top grade at the annual Scottish Fest at the OC Fair & Event Center in Costa Mesa. The event is traditionally held over two days on the United States’ Memorial Day weekend.

Cameron Bonar of Surrey, British Columbia, won the World Amateur Champion of Champions Invitational held via Zoom in celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the Competition League for Amateur Solo Pipers (CLASP). The nine most successful amateur solo pipers of 2023-’24 were invited, even if they had been elevated to the adult or professional/open grade during that time.

The top prizes were split between Sandy Cameron (Premier/A-Grade Piobaireachd), Steven Leask (Open MSR), and Ben Duncan (Open Hornpipe & Jig) at the annual Atholl Gathering, held on the grounds of Blair Castle. Edinburgh’s Brodie Watson-Massey also had a great day, winning the B-Grade Piobaireachd and prizes in both Open light music events. Nearly 80 solo pipers competed.

Great Lakes of Cleveland, Ohio, won both the Grads 2 Medley and MSR events at the 55th Alma Highland Festival against two other bands. There were no entries in Grade 3. The weather was light in the morning but turned into a beautiful sunny afternoon.

We continue with the fifth installment of 10 “Castle Recordings” piobaireachds in our exclusive series of performances captured on reel-to-reel tape at Edinburgh Castle in the early 1960s by the late Captain John A. MacLellan MBE. “A Flame of Wrath for Squinting Patrick” “The Battle of Waterloo” “Castle Menzies” “The […]

Usually, a Grade 1 band headlines a concert, and a lower-grade group might be a supporting act, but on Saturday, May 25th, the Grade 4 and Grade 5 Hamilton Police Pipe Bands of Hamilton, Ontario, have top billing and the Grade 1 78th Fraser Highlanders will be in support. “Rise […]

The world of piping and drumming can be a strange and unusual place for non-piping/drumming parents of young kids who become involved with the art. As a child of a mother and father who knew nothing about the mysterious and exclusive club before allowing their boy to become involved, I now recognize how difficult it can be, even more so after teaching young pipers plunging into our pool of competition, decorum, and tradition.

The UK’s Sky Arts television channel is creating Battle of the Bagpipes, a three-part series that will begin on July 3rd. Pipers, pipe band drummers and pipe bands often bemoan the lack of attention their art and achievements receive from mainstream media, and Battle of the Bagpipes appears to recognize […]