Pipe Major Donald MacLeod MBE seldom spoke of his early years or of his adventures during World War Two. What little we know from various sources reveals him to be much more than a marvellous musician and teacher. Donald was an extremely resourceful and courageous soldier. We had all heard the rumour that he had for a short time been a prisoner of the Nazis but had escaped. Wee Donald would almost always divert any…
Next month sees the annual Donald Macleod Memorial competition in Stornoway, Isle of Lewis. Few people knew the late pipe major as intimately as the author of this article for whom Donald wrote the popular 2/4 march ‘P/M Jim McWilliams’……. Today everyone can look up the achievements of Pipe Major Donald MacLeod MBE on Wikipedia. However, you can’t get to know or appreciate what a fine man he was from lists of facts….
Heading home now after five solid days of teaching in Florida. Think we progressed the cause of piping and drumming another few notches. Good crowd at the closing concert and everyone looking forward to next year when we plan to incorporate a band and solo contest into the Academy’s roster. In order to maintain a high teacher/ student ratio we capped the numbers at just over 40 this year but…
Donald McBride, one of our instructors at the South Florida Pipe and Drum Academy, has given more information on yesterday’s post on the SPA Amateur contest in 1972. During a break in the lessons Donald told me: ‘When I arrived at Washington Street I discovered my bag had burst so my father called Donald MacPherson. I had been going to him for lessons for two months. We went up to…
I’m told that there a few juvenile and novice juvenile pipe bands who are considering not playing in these grades. They cannot compete against the highly organised and well-financed teaching programmes at some of the private school bands and therefore, rather than opt for a hiding every weekend, may decide to take their chances in the adult grades such as 4a and 4b. If this is the case then we…
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