Author: Robert Wallace

A Look Back at the 2023 Northern Winter School

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A superb set of pictures issued yesterday perfectly captures the atmosphere and success of last week’s Northern Winter School. It is held at a youth hostel at Müden/Örtze on Germany’s northern plain. Set among vast fields, woods and streams there’s nowhere to go. You have to get along. We do. By the Editor Fifty-two students, mostly pipers, worked to a curriculum and system we established at the first College of…

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History: The Man who Built the Glenfinnan Monument and His Piper

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Any piper who has played at Glenfinnan Highland Gathering will recognise this setting as one of the most magnificent in all Scotland, writes the Editor. It is close to the spot where Bonnie Prince Charlie raised his standard in 1745 and called on the clans to support his campaign to restore a Jacobite king to the British throne. Central to the vista is the tall monument commissioned by local landowner…

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Editor’s Notebook: Army School and The Queen/ SLOT Headgear/ Terry’s Address/ Drum Request/ Wellington’s Piper

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It should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone that her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II stepped in to stave off any threat to the Army School of Piping in Edinburgh. Her initiative came to light this week in a podcast interview with former Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne. He revealed that during an audience, Her Majesty challenged him on rumours of financial cuts at the school. Osborne feigned…

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Complete London Championship Results

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This contest was held in the Caledonian Club, Belgravia, on November 3/4. Bratach Gorm1 Roderick MacLeod, Old Men of the Shells 2 Finlay Johnston, Lament for the Earl of Antrim3 Angus D MacColl, Nameless, Cherede Darievea4 Callum Beaumont, Lament for MacLeod of Colbeck5 Bruce Gandy, Lachlan MacNeill Campbell Kintarbert’s Fancy  Open Piobaireachd for the William Gillies Cup (6 tunes)1 Finlay Johnston2 Nick Hudson3 Glenn Brown4 Bruce Gandy5 Andrew Donlon MSR:…

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Editor’s Notebook: Northern Winter School/ Callum Beaumont/ Croydon BB/ Hero Piper/

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To Germany today for the Northern Winter School. It has attracted its usual large crop of students, evidence of the sustaining interest in piping and drumming in that country. But not everywhere in Europe is doing so well. Looking around we can detect a falling off in a Scandinavia, once so strong. Where are the schools in Denmark and Sweden? Maybe there is stuff happening that I am unaware of….

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