Results

With firsts from all eight judges, Canterbury Caledonian Society enjoyed a convincing win at the 2026 New Zealand Championships, held in perfect conditions at the TET Stadium & Events Centre in the small town near New Plymouth on the country’s North Island. It was the band’s first big prize under recently appointed pipe-major, Piers Dover.

Australia’s Victorian Pipers Association held their annual Online Solo Piping Competition, and it was Jono Quay who was the overall A Grade winner, Campbell Wilson in the B Grade, C Grade: Finley Parsons, Charlotte Donovan in the D Grade, and the overall Novice champion was Jonno Zilber.

Grade 2 Moorabbin City were the winners in the top contested grade at the Haileybury Pipe Band Competition, where a total of 31 bands competed across all grades. Grade 1 Hawthorn performed a Medley and MSR for judges’ comments as the only band in the top grade.

Steven McElhaney of Sacramento, California, was the big winner at the fifteenth annual Redding Solo Piping Competitions, winning the Grade 1 aggregate and thus earning an invitation to the Sandy Jones Memorial Amateur Championship in Florida. The overall awards were won by Katya Teodorovich (Grade 2), Brian Schwartzberg (Grade 3), Rees Parker (Grade 4) and Bill Bailey (Grade 5).

Fifty-one bands and 10 quartets from 172 schools across Scotland gathered at the William McIlvanney Campus for the 2026 Scottish Schools Pipe Band Championships, the largest entry yet over the 12 times the event has been held.

Andrew Hutton of Buffalo, New York, Mitchell Arnold from Aurora, Ontario, and John Reid, also of Aurora, were the Professional, A Division and B Division winners, respectively, at the 2026 Toronto Solo Piping Knockout Competition finals, organized by the Toronto Branch of the Pipers & Pipe Band Society of Ontario.

With a Piobaireachd win and a second in the MSR, Finlay Johnston was the overall champion at the 2026 Glasgow Uist & Barra Association’s Invitational Solo Piping Competition held at the National Piping Centre’s Otago Street premises.

The latest “Live Online” competition run by the Competition League for Adult Solo Pipers (CLASP) was held over two days, contestants’ live performances recorded for the judges to review later. Ultimately, the aggregate awards went to Charles-David Mitchell, Ontario (Grade 1); Anthony Kelly, Houston (Grade 2); Emmanuel Bregent, Brittany (Grade 3); and Chi Kit Yeung, Hong Kong (Grade 4).

The National Piping Centre was stowed out with young pipers and their proud parents at the organization’s 2026 Junior Solo Piping Competition, where Charlie Mack won the aggregate trophy in the Under 18 category, Shay McInarlin gained the Under 15 aggregate, Larry Presslie won the overall trophy in the Under 13, and Charles Campbell was best aggregate in the Practice Chanter.

Connor Sinclair of Crieff, Scotland, won the Ardmore Cup for the third time, an event that showcases invited competitors in a creative setting that includes a freestyle Medley contest as well as a traditional MSR. Each piper also plays a slow air during their tuning, with a separate award for each.

Vancouver – February 21, 2026 – Steven McWhirter w …

The fourth annual Skye K. Richendrfer Memorial Cup Grade 4 Piobaireachd Challenge was won by Matthew Hubbard, of Omaha, Nebraska, playing “Sir James MacDonald of the Isles’ Lament.”

Blair Beaton of Scotia, New York, won the 2026 RSPBA Adult Solo Snare Drumming Intercontinental Championship held at the Irish American Association of Northwest New Jersey, the first in the association’s eight-contest Champion of Champions League. Beaton also earned a spot in the semi-final at the 2026 World Solo Pipe Band Snare Drumming Championship in Glasgow in October.

Stuart Easton of Palmerston North won all four Open solo piping events and the Manawatu Scottish organization’s Grade 4 band took the only contested grade in the pipe band events at the 161st Turakina Highland Games, the longest-running competition in New Zealand and one of the oldest in the world.

With two firsts in the two events at the inaugural Masters Invitational Solo Drumming Competition, Steven McWhirter of Glasgow was the obvious overall winner.