Archive

Fergus Muirhead has been working Piping Live! events for the entire life of the festival, and he’s still doing an excellent job informing and entertaining at a variety of events. He spoke about the obvious success of teaching young people bagpipes in various parts of the world, as evidenced by both the number of pipers interested in playing in the Under 21 event and the obvious quality of those interested. This year, the heats each day feature six pipers, up two from all previous events.

Emerging Talent – Ciar Milne & Friends National Piping Centre Street Café 5 pm – Monday, August 14, 2023 One of the regular joys of Piping Live! over the last 20 years has been stumbling into a performance that you didn’t plan to see and being absolutely delighted with the […]

Against 24 other top-tier solo pipers, Bruce Gandy of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, emerged the overall winner of the Masters Solo Piping Competition held at the National Piping Centre as part of the 2023 Piping Live! Festival. With the win, Gandy earned one of the 10 spots for the 2023 Glenfiddich Championships on October 28th in Blair Atholl, Scotland, but Gandy had already qualified with his win of the Bratach Gorm at London.

Glasgow Life, co-organizers of the World Pipe Band Championships with the RSPBA, has confirmed that the Friday Grade 1 competitions will be streamed live, with the first band, New Zealand’s Auckland & District, scheduled to kick off the unrestricted MSR contest at 10:30 am GMT. Here’s the link: www.theworlds.co.uk As in […]

Glasgow – August 14, 2023 – The first full day of the 2023 Piping Live! Glasgow Festival of Piping included for the first time the British Solo Drumming Championships at the National Piping Centre, with Dublin’s Stephen Creighton, leading-drummer of Grade 1 St. Laurence O’Toole, winning the event, one of […]

Four Grade 1 bands weathered the wildly intermittent spells of, rain, wind, cloud and sunshine at the Perth Highland Games, and it was Police Scotland Fife that was the overall best, and New Zealand’s Manawatu Scottish an aggregate second with a win in the Medley and a second in the MSR. Of additional note, Canterbury Caledonian Society, also from New Zealand, took two firsts in piping in the Medley event, and Police Scotland Fife enjoyed two drumming firsts.

Heavy rain at times drenched the North Berwick Highland Games, where nine bands contested Grade 1 in two events: a Medley closed only to Grade 1 bands and an MSR that was open to Grade 1 and Grade 2 bands.

Ultimately, Inveraray & District took the Medley, while Peoples Ford Boghall & Bathgate Caledonia won the MSR, in what would be the final contest before the World Championships. The overall prize went to Inveraray & District based on RSPBA rules for such an event that dictates that the aggregate award is “decided by combined performance totals” and not combined final rankings per event.

In one of the last small contests before the World Championships, Police Scotland Fife beat Police Scotland & Federation in a two-band Grade 1 contest. No bands entered the Grade 2 event, which was won by the Juvenile George Watson’s College playing against the Grade 3 Denny & Dunipace Association.

Just more than 80 of the world’s top solo pipers will gather for the annual Northern Meeting Competitions at Inverness, Scotland, on Thursday, August 31st and Friday, September 1st. “Inverness,” as it’s casually referred to in the piping and drumming world, is anything but casual, with winners of the premier […]

Hot on the heels of being appointed the next leading-drummer of the storied Grade 1 Shotts & Dykehead Caledonia, Grant Cassidy scored another great position after being appointed Senior Drumming Tutor of the National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland’s 2023-’24 Program. The perennial contender in the World Solo Drumming Championship […]

By winning the Dunvegan Medal, Fred Morrison of Bishopton, Scotland, won one of the few major solo piping prizes that had until now eluded him, while Derek Midgley of Tinton Falls, New Jersey, won the Colonel Jock MacDonald Clasp for those who had already won the Dunvegan Medal. More than 30 pipers competed in the senior events. Edinburgh’s Ben Duncan won both the Marches and the Strathspey & Reel, enjoying probably the best overall day in terms of results.

Ballater, Scotland – August 10, 2023 – The first prizes went to three separate players at the annual Ballater Highland Games, which attracted about 20 pipers to the Senior competitions. Andrew Donlon, Washington, DC; Craig Muirhead, Stirling, Scotland; and Fred Morrison, Bishopton, Scotland, won the Piobaireachd, March and Strathspey & […]

Lorient, Brittany – August 8, 2023 – With first placings from six of the six judges across all three events, Stuart Liddell of Inveraray, Scotland, won the MacCrimmon Trophy at the Inter-Celtic Music Festival in the Breton village of Lorient. The competition started in 1982 as a celebration of Celtic […]

With the king and queen of Warri, Nigeria, looking on, John Mulhearn of Glasgow won three of the four Senior solo piping events at the annual Aboyne Highland Games in Scotland’s Royal Deeside. The annual games have been held with few breaks on the first Saturday of August since 1867. The weather was gie dreich.

pipes|drums is pleased to bring all pipe band members, friends and enthusiasts in Scotland for Piping Live! and the World Championships our nineteenth Guide to Grade 1 Band Practices and Appearances! We’ve reached out to all 16 top-grade bands entered for the World’s with a request to share their information, […]

Goodness knows how much a bottle of 50-year-old Glenfiddich would cost a devoted whisky fan, but connoisseurs of great solo piping can enjoy the music of the world’s 10 best players at the 50th-anniversary edition of the Glenfiddich Solo Piping Championship on October 28th for £20 in-person or £15 online […]