Craig Sutherland, now living in western Canada, is unable to travel to the 2025 Silver Chanter competition/ recital. Craig qualified by winning the Gold Medal at Inverness last year. His place will be taken by Angus MacPhee, runner-up in the Dunvegan Medal 2024.
Other invitees are Nick Hudson, Texas, (Inverness Clasp), Alasdair Henderson, Dunoon, (Snr. Piob. Oban), Derek Midgley, New Jersey, (Dunvegan Clasp), Sandy Cameron, Roy Bridge, (Dunvegan Medal), and Cameron Drummond, Edinburgh, (Oban Gold Medal).
The competition will be held in at the Gaelic College, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Sleat, Skye, on Wednesday, August 6. The judge is Dr Bill Wotherspoon.
Each piper has submitted four MacCrimmon tunes from the Clasp list at Skye Gathering, one of which he is required to play. The tune the adjudicator selects for them will be given in the final tuning room.
The main trophy, presented by Dame Flora MacLeod of MacLeod in 1967, remains in the museum at Sabhal Mòr. Future winners’ names will be inscribed on it as required.
Small replica Silver Chanters (below) are presented to each winner as a memento of their achievement.
The event is sponsored and promoted by the Piobaireachd Society and Torabhaig Single Malt Whisky. Society President Robert Wallace said: ‘Given that the Silver Chanter was established to attract top pipers to the Skye Gathering our default for qualification will always be either the Dunvegan Medal or the Col. Jock MacDonald Clasp. Angus is a strong replacement for Craig and will complement an already excellent line up.’
The Silver Chanter is a black tie event for the pipers. Each receives the same fee. Prior to the competition the pipers and partners are invited for a meal at a nearby hotel. At its conclusion, the draw is made.
It is expected that as last year the event will be recorded and broadcast by BBC Radio Scotland and BBC Radio nan Gàidheal.
These recording will be made available for members on the Piobaireachd Society website. Listen to last year’s winning tune, Lament for the Children, with an introduction by Fear an Tighe Dr Decker Forrest:
The other 2024 performances are available here.
The auditorium at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig is ideal, with plenty of comfortable seating. Tickets are available at the door (7pm) and are free for under 16s.
Mr Wallace added: ‘The tunes, and the calibre of piper presenting them, ensures a high quality evening of classical pipe music. To hear this music on the island where the MacCrimmons themselves taught and played makes for a very special occasion.’
Young MacCrimmon and the Silver Chanter
This children’s book by Robert Wallace is illustrated by Norman Matheson and taken from the storytelling of the late raconteur and folk singer Mick Broderick of the Whistlebinkies. It tells the story of the fabled silver chanter and how it brought fame and fortune to the MacCrimmon family only to see it lost forever…..and then there’s Mischief Maisie…
‘….a new Scottish children’s c…
