Piobaireachd Society Concert 2026/ CLASP Results

Our recital, ‘Classical Pipe Music – Scotland’s Hidden Treasure’, part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, was once again a resounding success. It was held in St Cecilia’s Hall last Sunday, August 9th. Ninety-five people were present buying tickets on the door or via the festival box office.

The format has changed a little over the years but the basic structure has remained the same. Pipers play piobaireachd to an interested and diverse audience with no interval between tunes, and no tuning of drones to interrupt the atmosphere. 

This does cause the pipers certain challenges, but the stewarding is so exact that all the instruments were in excellent tune throughout the whole evening. The acoustic in this famous hall is outstanding. 

The audience included some pipers (Eagle Pipers, RSPS and PS members were spotted), but the majority were non-pipers who had come along out of interest to find out more about our music.

The three pipers were Sean McKeown, a regular Gold Medal prizewinner, and Callum Wynd and Kyle Cameron last year’s Silver Medallists. They played a mixture of tunes from the 2026 set tune list and their own favourites.

So we had Port Urlar and the Lament for the Viscount of Dundee (Sean), the Prince’s Salute and the MacDonalds are Simple (Callum), and finally You’re Welcome Ewan Lochiel and Rory MacLeod’s Lament (Kyle). 

The six tunes were separated into two groups of three by a short interval, and at the end of the performance there was an opportunity for the audience to meet the pipers and enjoy a drink and some shortbread. 

This session was reportedly one of the most enjoyable parts of the evening, as it is rare for an audience to be able to speak to the players in a recital. The free whisky was also much appreciated judging by the queue at the ‘bar’.

Next year we hope to run the same event at the same time so watch out for the adverts. Recordings of the all the tunes this year will be on our website shortly.

Thanks are due to John Forbes, Paul Warren and Karen McCrindle-Warren for all their help with making things run so smoothly.

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CLASP Results
The Piping Centre ran its ‘World Amateur’ series this week over three days. Champion Piper was Olivia Corcoran pictured below with Grade 1 Piobaireachd winner John Bertino.

Piobaireachd: 1 J Bertino 2 L Gorsuch 3 O Corcoran  4 J Hughes 5 C Dunbar 6 C McNamara 
MSR: 1 O Corcoran 2 L Gorsuch 3 CD Mitchell 4 B Evans  5 C McNamara  6 J Gallagher
H&J: 1 O Corcoran 2 C Kirk 3 B Evans 4 C McNamara 5 CD Mitchell 6 A Glover 

Grade 2 Overall: Christopher Couperthwaite 
Piob.: 1 S Stringer 2 A Bass 3 C Couperthwaite 4 T Hales 5 W Fallon 6 K McEwan 
March: 1 C Bohan 2 G Harley 3 C Couperthwaite 4 S Stewart 5 S Stringer 6 S Milne 
S&R: 1 C Davison 2 C Bohan 3 G Harley 4 C Couperthwaite 5 W Fallon 6 S Stringer
Jig: 1 D Reilly 2 G Harley 3 C Bohan 4 C Davison  5 C Couperthwaite 6 W Fallon 

Grade 3 Overall: Amanda Brennan
Piob.: 1 C Bohan 2 J Moore 3 K Allan 4 L Marinelli 5 M Erwin 6 R Johnson 
March: 1 A Brennan 2 M O’ Donnell 3 P Sweeney 4 A Chan 5 J Kein 6 L Marinelli
S&R: 1 J Kein 2 B Heywood 3 A Chan 4 A Brennan 5 M Erwin 6 M O Donnell
Jig: 1 A Brennan 2 B Heywood 3 J Kein 4 M Erwin 5 C Ryan 6 C Campbell

Grade 4 Overall: Sami Abdullah Al-Sriri
Piob.: 1 QA Al Ghafri 2 S Birth 3 SA Al- Sriri 4 A Samia Abadan 5 H Wood 6 C Tse
March: 1 SA Al-Sriri 2 I Jackson 3 A Samia Abadan 4 QA Al Ghafri 5 C Tse 6 S Birch
S&R: 1 A Samia Abadan 2 QA Al Ghafri 3 SA Al-Sriri 4 C Tse 5 S Birch 6 J Middleton
Jig: 1 SA Al-Sriri 2 A Samia Abadan 3 QA Al Ghafri 4 S Birch 5 R Johnson 6 H Wood

Judges: A Bova, W Brown, R Livingstone, D MacPhee, W Morrison, C Muirhead,