Results

Inveraray & District was the winner of their first contest of 2023 at the annual Gourock Highland Games on Scotland’s west coast against a field of three other Grade 1 bands. Peoples Ford Boghall & Bathgate Caledonia, under new Leading-Drummer Kerr McQuillan won the drumming and finished second as a band.

Sean McKeown of Bowmanville, Ontario, earned the 2023 Livingstone Invitational Solo Piping Championship overall prize with a second in the piobaireachd and a second in the MSRHP&J against a field of 10 other contestants. Of note, McKeown gained his piobaireachd prize playing “For Ranald,” probably the first time Bill Livingstone’s piece composed in honour of his late brother was performed in competition.

City of Edinburgh kicked off the Scottish outdoor band competition season in perfect form by taking straight firsts in Grade 2, the highest contested event at the first outing on the RSPBA circuit. England’s City of Newcastle won the Grade 3 competition, also with four first placings, against seven other bands.

Stuart Easton with his 2023 R.U. Brown Piobaireach …

Winning both the Piobaireachd and MS events, Derek Midgley of Tinton Fall, New Jersey, was the winner of the Pipe-Major Ian Swinton Open Solo Piping Competition, a contest put on by the Midwest Pipe Band Association with a total cash purse of US$3,500. Avens Ridgeway of St. Joseph, Missouri, made a solid return to solo competition, finishing third overall. Eight pipers competed and the judges were Jack Lee and Bob Worrall for both events.

Judge Jim McGillivray (left) and 2023 Atlantic Can …

Local piper Cameron Drummond was the popular winner of the Grade 2 City of Edinburgh’s Pipe-Major’s Wheel of Fortune solo piping competition held at Danderhall Miners’ Club in Midlothian. The event, which is hosted by the City of Edinburgh Pipe Band, requires pipers to play a medley of tunes determined by spinning a Golden Chanter on the Wheel of Fortune. The Wheel features 12 tune categories and competitors are required to play five of them, with the final tune category selected by a member of the audience as pipers take the floor.

Sarah Muir in a 2019 photo. Oban, Scotland – April …

Ulster Scottish of Philadelphia were the big winners at the 2023 American Pipe Band Championships at the Scope Arena, part of the Virginia Tattoo weekend. Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University took the Grade 3 title and Ottawa Police Service won the Open Drum Fanfare. A few Grade 3 bands played up. There were no other competition grades.

Callum Davidson with his solo piping hardware afte …