Thanks to all those who responded to my story about the teaching of piping in schools, writes the Editor. You may have missed the printed comments from Claire MacPherson and George Barlow, so here they are again. Claire first: ‘I wholeheartedly agree. Music must be at the very core [of our education system] and every child deserves to have the opportunity to experience our amazing musical heritage and take it…
Dear Piping Enthusiast, Can any of us believe the torrid times our music has suffered in the past couple of summers? Who knows the damage the pandemic will have done to our great tradition. However, an end is in sight and already we can see the green shoots of recovery in the solo world. Sadly, there is not much doing in the pipe band world, but the solos? Yes there…
The news the other day that Scotland’s devolved government is to abolish fees for children learning a musical instrument at school should be welcomed, writes the Editor. We expect that this will cover piping and drumming tuition. As ever, the devil is in the detail. The £7m promised is for the school terms within the academic year 2021 -2022. Thereafter the government has pledged to work with local authority leaders…
The Argyllshire Gathering are to mark their 150th Anniversary by holding a ‘live’ professional piping contest. The date is Wednesday, August 25th. The invited pipers are all from, or have strong family connections with, the county of Argyll. They are as follows: Jamie Forrester, Alasdair Henderson, Finlay Johnston, Stuart Liddell, Angus MacColl, William McCallum and Sarah Muir. The competition will take place in the Argyllshire Gathering Halls in Oban. The…
I am not surprised that bagmaker Jim Begg got almost universal support for his views on the dearth of contests this year. Piping Press has been banging on about this for some time too. It is rather late now to do anything for this summer but the performance of our promoters in keeping the national music alive over this difficult period has been poor, it must be said. Part of…
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