Gold Medal Winning Tunes from SFU’s P/M Alan Bevan

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Two new recordings for the PP Audio Archive of solo piping. They are from SFU’s Alan Bevan and are his actual Gold Medal winning performances from the Northern Meeting in 2008 and the Argyllshire Gathering in 2013.

Alan’s tunes are, firstly, Clan MacNab’s Salute and second, the Young Laird of Dungallon’s Salute.

The recordings are free to access thanks to Alan’s generosity and your support for our advertisers and the Piping Press Shop.

P/M Bevan (39) is one of the world’s top soloists. He manages to combine this with his duties as pipe major of the World Championship winning Simon Fraser University Pipe Band.

His biography on the SFU website reads: ‘Alan is one of the world’s top pipers. His career highlights include winning the Gold and Silver Medals at the Northern Meeting, the Gold Medal at the Argyllshire Gathering, the Jig events at both Oban and Inverness in the same year, overall winner at the Donald MacLeod Memorial competition (2009) and overall winner at the Masters’ Invitational (2009).  



‘Formerly P/M of the Grade 1 Abbotsford Police Pipe Band, Alan has been a member of the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band since 1995. He has won the World Championship with the band on several occasions. Alan has performed as a featured soloist at the band’s concerts at Roy Thompson Hall in Toronto, the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, the Sydney Opera House, and both the Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall in New York.  
‘He practices as a barrister and lives in Abbotsford, BC.’

Of the tunes Robert Wallace writes: Clan MacNab’s Salute is a long, technically straightforward tune, though the a mach coming at the end can prove taxing for tiring fingers. The melody at no time goes above F so there are no high Gs or high As to worry about. The tune may seem prosaic on first study but the gifted player, phrasing well and sensitive to subtle changes in tempo, can succeed with it.

The Young Laird of Dungallon can be seen as either a lament or a salute, our hero dying, according to Angus MacKay, when aged only 20. The tune asks questions of the chanter’s setting with exciting reaches to high G and high A. Technically there are throws to high G  and F to contend with and these must be delivered within the context of a flowing melody, good control of the time given to semi-quavers and quavers essential.

Listen to Alan Bevan’s fine playing of these two tunes here.