Winning the Gold Medal is something that I’ve been striving for for some time. It’s every piper’s dream to win ‘the Medal’. To have the opportunity to play for it, first of all, has been a great honour.
My first year in the Medal placing behind my good friend Ian K MacDonald twice on his double win in 2016 was a really special moment for me and now all these years later to win it myself is almost surreal.
By Sean McKeown,
Gold Medallist 2026
It’s a great feeling, and a bit of a relief too I suppose. It was ten years ago Ian won and I’ve been coming back every year since – minus the covid period – and have every prize in the two Gold Medal events at Oban and Inverness but first. I am grateful to get all those prizes but it means a lot to get this one.
It is a pity my teacher for many years Bill Livingstone was not here to see my success but his legacy and spirit lives on through his pupils. So many lessons from Bill were about feeling the music and have perhaps internalised a lot of what he’s given me. I have had other great influences over the years but the foundation of my piobaireachd playing has always come from Bill.
Click on the pic to watch the march to the games……
He’s the person who got me excited about piobaireachd at the start and how I evolved my love of it. I had a great time playing my tune yesterday. Results are out of your hands. All you can do is hopefully control your instrument but also how you play. I really enjoyed my playing and that was my goal – to play for the performance and never really the prize.
People ask me about my pipes. Well I have a busy career and being a dad and with other responsibilities I have to do my best to juggle everything as well as I can. There was even a time I was running the Toronto Police band and now I play with Field Marshal.
I love all of it and that keeps me motivated to do it all but it is really hard to give solo work 100% – but this year I found that I was able to give it a little bit more.
Over the past month or so I re-visited my instrument, sorted a few issues out that I had, and with all that sorted it gave me a confidence in my bagpipe. I was able to relax and play the music and that is why I felt really comfortable yesterday.
When the steward came into final tuning and gave me my tune [Port Urlar] I was very happy with it. Lots of piobaireachd high Gs of course and as every piper knows it takes a lot to get a good chanter and reed set up to maintain that note.
I am very particular about that note and spent a lot of time finding the right reed/ chanter combination so that if I had that tune selected the high G would be on point. Looking at the list as a whole that tune was a standout and I really enjoyed finding the subtleties in the music and delivering it.
My message to other aspiring pipers in Ontario and elsewhere is to pursue what you love doing. If you give it your all it will pay you back tenfold. If you love it; pursue it. Give it your best effort.
Find good teachers and mentors and get inspired by the people around you and keep at it. A life in piping is unlike any other and you meet all kinds of great people from all over the world. I don’t think there’s anything else quite like it in which you could find this sort of community.
- Piobaireachd Society members can listen to Sean playing Port Urlar prior to winning the medal here. This, and the other recordings, are from the Society’s St Cecilia’s Hall Recital, Edinburgh, August 9.
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Detroit Highlanders, Barlinnie Highlander… the list goes on…