The Director of Army Bagpipe Music and Highland Drumming, Major Gordon Rowan, has cancelled the 2020 Captain John A. MacLellan MBE Piping Championship. The Army School of Bagpipe Music & Highland Drumming (ASBM&HD) has now opened for the first time since lockdown, welcoming all staff to prepare for a return to normal teaching within Inchdrewer House. Major Gordon Rowan: ‘The current AA Class 1 Piper’s course is now able to…

One thing struck me when looking at and listening to some of the recent online competition submissions was how much more of an occasion it was when the pipers were dressed properly. In the last one I watched (the USPF) there was a decided lack of dress sense and not a kilt in sight as far as I could see. Earlier this year Andrew Carlisle’s contest at Carnegie Mellon set…

Reader Hugh Bevan writes: ‘My Gillanders and McLeod pipes are for sale. They are blackwood pipes with ivory mounts and nickel ferrules and are in very good condition. ‘They were professionally refurbished at the beginning of this year. Price: £1,850. Please contact me on:  h.c.bevan@btinternet.com .’ More details and pictures here. The Piping Press Online Advertising Service is a great way to sell your pipes, chanters etc. Only £25 per insertion…

The piping and pipe band worlds are holding up well despite a summer decimated by the virus emergency, writes the Editor. Piping Press will continue to do its bit to keep everyone’s enthusiasm bubbling along until the sunny uplands of 2021 appear on the horizon. Today we are offering free of charge the second set of three quality portraits of significant piping figures of the past. Readers can download these…

I must say the standard of paintings we have received for our Lockdown Challenge has been terrific. Witness the above detail from artist Scott Kish. It is of piper Robert Dowson and is in watercolour. The size is 11″ x 15″. We’ll keep the challenge going till the end of July at which point it will be over to judge Robert Mathieson who has kindly agreed to select the winners….