Archive

The Cambridge Highland Games, which often suffers from oppressive heat or torrential rain, enjoyed magnificent weather for a welcomed change as the Peel Regional Police Pipe Band won the five-band Grade 2 medley contest. Sean McKeown of Bowmanville, Ontario, was the Professional Solo Piper of the Day, and MacKenzie Chamberlain was the Professional Snare Drummer of the Day.

Ben Duncan of Edinburgh continued his run of success around the Scottish solo circuit by winning two of the three events at the Mull Highland Games under an incessant soaking with several hard downpours shaking things up for good measure. Angus D. MacColl of Benderloch, Scotland, won the Piobaireachd.

The relatively small and highly congenial Kamloops Highland Games returned to the British Columbia Pipers Association competition circuit for the first time since 2019 under warm and dry conditions in the scenic town in south-central British Columbia at the confluence of the North and South Thompson Rivers. There were no pipe band events but a good turnout by amateur soloists.

We continue with the seventh 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.

With muggy temperatures soaring to the mid-30s in normally cool Cape Breton, the 159th Antigonish Highland Games were memorable and even historic on several fronts. The Grade 1 78th Highlanders (Halifax Citadel) made a strong statement by ditching waistcoats/vests and neckties for comfortable open-neck polo shirts, long-serving Atlantic Canada Pipe Band Association Chief Steward Rick Crawford made his retirement official with a special presentation, and Ajax, Ontario’s Sean McKeown ended 25 consecutive years of either Bruce or Alex Gandy winning the aggregate award in the Open/Professional Solo Piping.

After local funding had been cut for the Ulster Pipe Band & Drum-Major Championships earlier this year, the likelihood of the event happening in 2024 seemed remote. But the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association’s Northern Ireland Branch pulled out all the stops and has now secured the event for August […]

In honour of the 150th anniversary of the liberal arts institution’s founding, the Minnesota Scottish Fair & Highland Games returned to the Macalester College campus for the first time since 2003. The Macalester College Pipe Band took the top prize, the last event before the band competes at the European and World Championships in Scotland for the first time in its 75-year history. It was the band’s seventh win out of the last nine events dating back to 2023.

Ben Duncan of Edinburgh was nearly perfect, winning three events and placing second in the fourth, earning the overall Best Open Piper trophy at the Inveraray Highland Games, probably the biggest outdoor competition in the Scottish solo piping circuit. Steven Leask of Glasgow won the Open Piobaireachd.

As the band prepares to compete in Scotland, Greighlan Crossing won the top contested pipe band grade at a warm Skagit Valley Highland Games, winning both events. Alan Bevan was overall best in the Open solo piping, and Craig Sutherland, Cameron Bonar, and Jamie Kubasiewicz also came away with firsts. The events benefitted from Scottish judges in town as instructors at the Celtic Arts Foundation summer school.

The Grade 1 78th Highlanders (Halifax Citadel) of Nova Scotia have made a permanent switch to open-neck polo shirts as part of their uniform, choosing comfort over tradition and believed to be the first top-grade band to make the switch in the name of good playing and safety. “It was […]

The British Columbia Pipers Association continued its creative and thoughtful ways with Cameron Bonar of Surrey, British Columbia, winning the inaugural Skye Richendrfer Memorial Jig Competition. The event was created in honour of the late piper, contributor, and leader who died in 2022 of leukemia at the age of 64.

Stuart Easton of Palmerston North, New Zealand, and Hunterville, New Zealand’s Willie Rowe were the winners, respectively, of the annual Everest Piobaireachd and Brown Cup light music at the Wellington Pipers Club’s 72nd annual Brown Cup Competition at Scots College Wellington.

The days of top pipe bands having recording labels make commercial albums are well and truly over, so 2023 World Champions Peoples Ford Boghall & Bathgate Caledonia are reaching out to piping and drumming enthusiasts to help underwrite a live recording of the band’s “Cabar Fèidh” Pre-Worlds Concert on August […]

Craig Sutherland of Perth, Scotland, won the inaugural Gordon Duncan Memorial Kitchenpiping Solo Piping Competition at the 28th annual Skagit Valley Highland Games at the Skagit County Fairgrounds. Sixteen Open, Grade 1 and Grade 2 pipers competed. The Gordon Duncan Memorial Trust and the Celtic Arts Foundation sponsor the event.

The National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland have opened for pipers and drummers ages 10 to 25 eager to join the highly successful performance-based program that brings together Scotland’s top young players. The National Piping Centre runs the program, and “provides unique opportunities for the top young players to connect, […]

If the total entry at the 2024 World Championships is an indication, the rebound of the competitive pipe band community post-pandemic shows a solid gain. 204 bands across all grades are set to compete at the August 16-17 competition at Glasgow Green in Glasgow, an increase of 14 bands over […]