Results

Simon Fraser University of Vancouver won the 2026 World Championship after the second two-event day at Glasgow Green, in overcast, breezy and cool conditions, with the high reaching about 18°C and no rain, with large crowds both in the stands and all over the park. St. Laurence O’Toole of Dublin won the drumming.

The first day of the 2026 World Pipe Band Championships enjoyed near-perfect weather: partly sunny, breezy, a high of about 20°C, and, best of all, no rain. The 13 Grade 1 bands competed in a four-part MSR contest and an own-choice Medley event, the results kept under lock and key, to be compiled with the equivalent contests on Saturday to produce a final result.

In a first since the event started more than 30 years ago, the 2026 P-M Alasdair Gillies Memorial Recital Challenge ended in a deadlock, with Callum Beaumont of Guardbridge, Scotland, and Connor Sinclair, Crieff, Scotland, sharing the prize after rankings submitted by the five unidentified judges in the audience were tabulated.

After four gruelling qualifying heats and an extra-arduous Final of four in the National Piping Centre’s Auditorium, Andrew Zhao of Houston was named Pipe Idol 2026, receiving a set of Fred Morrison Reelpipes.

The fourth and final heat of Piping Live!’s 2026 Pipe Idol competition was won by Andrew Zhao of Houston, chosen by an unidentified group of three judges to go through to the four-piper Grand Final later in the day.

The third and final CLASP (Competition League for Amateur Solo Pipers) at the 2026 Piping Live! Festival was for Grade 1, and Olivia Corcoran of Gaithersburg, Maryland, won the overall trophy, with two light music first prizes and a third in the Piobaireachd.

The third heat of Piping Live!’s 2026 Pipe Idol competition was won by Scotland’s Kai Hay, chosen by an unidentified group of three judges to go through to the four-piper Grand Final on Thursday, August 13th.

Christopher Couperthwaite of Germany was the overall winner of the CLASP Grade 2 World Solo Amateur Piping Competition at Piping Live! 2026, held at the National Piping Centre’s Otago Street branch.

After two knee-knocking, stomach-churning, why-did-I-ever-volunteer-for-this? performances, Peoples Ford Boghall & Bathgate Caledonia emerged winners of the 2026 International Quartet Competition at a packed Strathclyde Suite in the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.

We’re asking one important question each day of Piping Live! 2026. Here are responses from Tuesday, August 11th, on whether it’s time for the Grade 1 and Grade 2 MSR events to be replaced with something else (including retaining the MSR in a different way).

The second heat of Piping Live!’s 2026 Pipe Idol competition was won by 16-year-old Lachlan Rennie, chosen by an unidentified group of three judges to go through to the four-piper Grand Final on Thursday, August 13th.

The Competition League for Adult Solo Pipers (CLASP) also seized the opportunity that Piping Live! and Worlds Week presented, with hundreds of overseas pipers in town to potentially participate in the “World Solo Amateur Piping Competition” at the Otago Street premises of the National Piping Centre.

The RSPBA’s Glasgow & West of Scotland Branch took advantage of the influx of pipe bands in Scotland for the World Championships by holding the British Solo Drumming Championship at the National Piping Centre’s Otago Street premises, where Australia’s Steven Shedden, leading-drummer of Grade 1 Hawthorn, was victorious.

The first heat of Piping Live!’s 2026 Pipe Idol competition was won by Liam Nicolson of Melbourne, Australia, chosen by an unidentified group of three judges to go through to the four-piper Grand Final on Thursday, August 13th.

The 2026 Piping Live! Festival kicked off with the Masters Solo Piping Competition at the National Piping Centre, and it was Alasdair Henderson who won the overall title and thus gained an invitation to the 2026 Glenfiddich Championships in October.