This new digital book, ‘The Fyrish Collection’, is by double Gold Medallist Niall Matheson (pictured). It has more than 50 tunes covering every genre of pipe music from ceòl mòr to jigs and reels. Piobaireachd highlights include Niall’s well received tunes Salute to P/M Alasdair Gillies and Salute to the 51st Highland Division. The composer’s other works have already met with considerable acclaim. They are steeped in Highland character and lore,…

Yesterday’s cancellation of the Worlds and Scottish completed a rout of all major championships for two years in a row. Don’t be so sure that there will be a return to normality for pipe bands in 2022. The reasons for the call-offs were financial, organisational, musical and international. Smaller crowds, distance controlled crowds, would have meant less revenue at the Worlds and numbers would have been impossible to control at…

The RSPBA have announced today that both the Scottish Championships and the World Championships, scheduled for July 31 and August 13 and 14 respectively, have been cancelled. The announcement is not totally unexpected and comes despite major efforts to accommodate covid restrictions which may still be in place mid-summer. At the same time the Board of Directors of the Association have agreed that the Music Board should look at ways…

It is with great sadness that I write today of the passing of Willie Gilmour, known fondly in the piping world as simply ‘G’, the coolest teacher in school. Willie was a Glasgow man, but spent many years teaching in East Ayrshire schools where he taught numerous young students.  He is pictured above performing at Cumnock Academy with some of his students. His teaching supported all of the local pipe…

Nova Scotia piper Bruce Gandy has clinched the BC Pipers’ Association MacCrimmon Memorial Cairn and Medal as the winner of the Open Piobaireachd and the Mary MacLeod Collins Memorial Trophy for the Open piping aggregate at the 2021 Annual Gathering, held online April 2 & 3, 2021. This was Gandy’s eighth win of “The Cairn” at the Annual Gathering. His first win was in 1982. The online competition drew competitors…