Results

James Stone of Waterford City, Ireland, was the overall winner of the 2025 Gordon Duncan Memorial Piping Competition, held at the National Piping Centre as part of the Piping Live! Glasgow International Festival of Piping.

The Field Marshal Montgomery foursome won the 2025 International Quartet Competition held at the Strathclyde Suite of the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, part of the Piping Live! festival.

Bedfordview, Johannesburg – July 26, 2025 – Trepid …

Almost lost among the hubbub of Piping Live! were the British Solo Drumming Championships won by Inveraray & District’s Steven McWhirter with two firsts from the two judges.

Alan Bevan of Abbotsford, British Columbia, won the overall trophy at the 2025 Masters Competition, the biggest solo piping contest of the 2025 Piping Live! Glasgow International Festival of Piping. Ten different prize-winners were awarded for the 10 different placings in the two events, so Bevan won the overall by winning the Piobaireachd event.

Inveraray & District won the 2025 European Championship at South Inch Park, the third major competition of the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association’s four-championship season. Ulster Scottish of Philadelphia won Grade 2 and featured two other North American bands, North Stratton of Edmonton, Canada, and the Los Angeles Scots in the prize list.

Sandy Cameron won the Colonel Jock MacDonald Clasp for winners of the Dunvegan Medal at the Skye Gathering, and Alistair Brown won this year’s Dunvegan Medal. Steven Leask, Brodie Watson-Massey and Angus MacPhee also enjoyed top-drawer results.

Stuart Liddell of Inveraray, Scotland, was the winner of the 2025 MacCrimmon Trophy at the 54th annual Festival Interceltique de Lorient, the annual solo piping competition that combines Breton, Irish and Scottish music events. Each competitor was invited to the event by winning various qualifying events worldwide.

Callum Beaumont won the overall trophy in the Senior solo piping at the annual Aboyne Highland Games in Scotland’s scenic Royal Deeside region, winning the Piobaireachd and Strathspey & Reel. Willie McCallum also had a fine day, winning the March and enjoying a second in both the Piobaireachd and Hornpipe & Jig. Seventeen competed.

The 72nd Ulster Pipe Band Championships were held at West Strand Bay in an ideal setting just beside the beach, and Manorcunningham won Grade 2, the top contested event of the day. The only Grade 1 band to play was Ravara after Closkelt elected to withdraw.

Maxville, Ontario – August 2, 2025 – Ulster Scotti …

Ian K. MacDonald of Whitby, Ontario, had the most aggregate points across the five solo events to win the North American Solo Piping Championship at the 2025 Glengarry Highland Games, and Blair Beaton of Scotia, New York, won the equivalent overall trophy in the Professional Snare Drumming.

Gordon McCready of Renfrew, Scotland, continued his 2025 solo piping success by winning the overall trophy at the Dundonald Games in South Ayrshire in sunny and hot weather.

Bruce Gandy of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, won the Bar to the Piobaireachd Society Gold Medal (Canada), and Joe Biggs from Ajax, Ontario,  won the Piobaireachd Society Gold Medal (Canada) at the annual piobaireachd competitions held at the St. Michael & All Angels Anglican Church in the small farming community in the eastern part of Canada’s most populous province.

With an Sgùrr, the pinnacle of the Inner Hebrides Isle of Eigg, in the distance, Traigh Farm was once again the location for the annual Arisaig Highland Games, where 12 competed in the Senior (18 and older) solo piping events and six in the Juniors.