Editor’s Notebook: Lochaber/ Bessie MacKinnon/ Henderson Pipes/ SPA Professional

Occasionally we must extract a negative from what was clearly a happy, successful event. I refer to the Lochaber Junior Piping competition held last Saturday in Fort William. Yet again we saw very few pipers or drummers from the local schools coming forward to take part. Why is this? There is a full time piping tutor in Lochaber (for the past 20 years anyway) and I believe he/she has a…

Jimmy McIntosh Scholarship / Concert for Eilidh’s Trust

The members of the Jimmy McIntosh Piobaireachd Scholarship Committee are pleased to announce that, in this inaugural year, we have selected two deserving recipients for 2022 Abby Long of Houston, Texas, and Emmitt LaBelle of Morganton, North Carolina, pictured above, were selected from a number of applicants. All of the pipers who applied demonstrated a great deal of promise, and the committee’s decision was difficult. We are confident that Abby…

Lochaber Piping Society Junior Results

I attach a copy of results from Saturday’s competition. Judging by the feedback, the competitors were absolutely delighted to get back into a proper ‘in-person’ event and all indicated that they thoroughly enjoyed their day. We had 43 entrants who, with multiple classes, played in 128 performances. The piping adjudicators (Euan Dewar, Craig Muirhead, Connor Sinclair and John Dew) all commented on the high standards of playing – possibly the…

New Bronze Medal Competition Gives Major Boost to Solo Piping

The Competing Pipers’ Association is delighted to announce the creation of the brand new in 2022, inaugural Bronze Medal Piobaireachd contest, writes Ross Miller, Secretary. With the blessing of the Northern Meeting and Argyllshire Gathering, and generous funding from the Piobaireachd Society and the William Grant Foundation, a new CPA Bronze Medal has been minted. Every CPA member graded B or B-, and not already eligible for the Silver Medal…

History: RG Lawrie Limited, Master Pipemakers Whose Instruments Are Much Sought After

We have recently run history articles mentioning the famous Peter Henderson pipemaking firm. Equally renowned are the instruments of their rivals, RG Lawrie. Before he passed away Jimmy McIntosh forwarded to our editor the following article. In an accompanying note Jimmy wrote, ‘I had lunch one day in Stirling with Arthur Lawrie and he gave me this history of the RG Lawrie company. I think it is very interesting and…