It is several years since I was in Canada so I was pleased to accept an invitation to judge the Livingstone Invitational solo contest run by the Niagara-Hamilton Branch of the Pipers and Pipe Band Association of Ontario.
You can get a direct flight from Glasgow and that brought me seven hours or so later to Toronto to be met by my old Muirheads friend Mike MacDonald, the man immortalised in Jim MacGillivray’s popular jig of the same name.
By Robert Wallace
As well as being a top class piper, Mike is an opera buff and the car journey meant conversational journeys to Bayreuth. We then discoursed on two Canadian piano greats, Glenn Gould and the king of the Bössendorfer, jazzman Oscar Peterson, a son of nearby Mississauga.
Piping greats weren’t entirely out of the chat room mix with Alex MacNeil, Archie Cairns, Bill Livingstone, John Wilson, Ed Neigh and their attendant stories helping us handle the 403 traffic jams.
The following day it was to the John Weir Foote VC Armoury and the competition. This was established in 1978 by Bill Livingstone’s father. You can read about William Snr. and the origins of the contest here.
There were 11 invitees and one call off. They had to submit four piobaireachd.
The Officer’s Mess of the HQ of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders of Canada was the perfect venue, acoustically sound and visually appealing. The overall champion was Ontario’s own Sean McKeown. He took first in both piobaireachd and light music.
His tune in the former was the Lament for the Viscount of Dundee, a favourite of Sean’s tutor, the late Bill Livingstone. A look around the room and there we see an oil painting of Claverhouse himself.
Sean’s pipe was true and balanced. A chedari miss and a tendency to rush the doublings were the only concerns in an otherwise well-played tune.
Second went to Andrew Donlon with Lady MacDonald’s Lament. Another good pipe. Andrew mixed and matched his time signatures in the ground doubling but a commendable performance.
Tyler Johnston was third with MacDougall’s Gathering – pipe drifting towards the end and one or two timing issues at the T&C grip turns. Fourth was another Tyler, Bridge, with a good, musical Port Urlar marred by a few misses and some unconventional timings at the end of the lines in Variation 1.
Fifth went to Nick Hudson whose pipe seemed to this listener to have a coarse harmonic from the drones – not helping a Patrick Og that tended to square. The Lament for the Departure earned sixth for Joe Biggs – technically good, but needing much more expression on the double echoes.
Of the others, Dan Lyden had a dullish pipe in Bealach nam Brog; Abby Long (just up from the amateurs) tired towards the end of Park No2; Ian K MacDonald was off the tune in My Dearest on Earth, and Cameron Bonar lacked fluency with the Earl of Seaforth.
In the light music Sean McKeown was again triumphant. The pipers had to play a march, strathspey and reel, hornpipe and jig straight through, making this a unique event in the professional solo world as far as I am aware.
Sean handled his chosen tunes with considerable aplomb. They were David Ross, Inveraray Castle, Lochcarron (six parts), Moving Cloud and the Thief of Lochaber. (Incidentally Sean is one of the pipers at the Piobaireachd Society recital in August in Edinburgh – see display ad.)
The winner was pushed all the way by 18-year-old British Columbian, Cameron Bonar. He played with the assuredness of a true professional, handling Bonnie Ann, Cameronian Rant, Little Cascade, Lillian Livingstone and Donald, Willie and His Dog as though at a practice session in his front room.
The other prizes went to Ian K (rushing a bit in the march and hornpipe), Tyler Johnston (weakish start, strong finish), Joe Biggs (march too slow), and Tyler Bridge (phrasing deficit).
All the pipers deserve credit. The pipes were either good or very good. We had no breakdowns and only one off his tune – and even there you had to have the book to notice. The stewarding could not have been bettered and I can’t think of a more comfortable place to listen to piping than the historic premises of the Canadian Argylls. Fear an Tigh Bob Worrall’s well-tailored introductions completed a very satisfactory day of good music.
Piob: 1 Sean McKeown 2 Andrew Donlon 3 Tyler Johnston 4 Tyler Bridge 5 Nick Hudon 6 Joe Biggs; MSRHJ: 1 Sean McKeown 2 Cameron Bonar 3 Ian K MacDonald 4 Tyler Johnston 5 Joe Briggs 6 Tyler Bridge; Judges: A Grey, M Grey, R Wallace.
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