Archie Kenneth Entries/ Pipers’ Persuasion

The 31st annual amateur piobaireachd competition for the prestigious Archie Kenneth Quaich will take place on Saturday, 25th February 2023, writes Dr Peter McCalister on behalf of the Music Committee of the Piobaireachd Society. The venue is the rooms of the Royal Scottish Pipers Society, 127 Rose St North Lane, Edinburgh EH2 4BB, starting at 9.30am. Pictured above is Tom Peterkin the 2022 AKQ winner. Competitors should submit two tunes with…

Editor’s Notebook: Northern Winter School/ Andrew Wright/ French Piper/ Sun Belt/ Howard Memorial

To Germany’s Northern Winter School today for another week of hard work imparting the finer, and not so finer, points of the art of the great Highland bagpipe. The school, at a youth hostel about an hour north of Hannover, is growing in strength and sells out almost immediately it is advertised. That is due to the quality of the teaching and the marketing and organisational ability of the Principal,…

History of the World Pipe Band Championships – Part 1

We are grateful to correspondent Alistair Aitken for this updated history of the World Pipe Band Championship……. The World Pipe Band Championships (WPBC) is the main event in the annual calendar of the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association (RSPBA).  The Championships have a long history stretching back to 1906, but were not organised by the RSPBA (then SPBA) until 1947.  Initially the Championships were part of the Cowal Highland Gathering…

More Tributes Paid to the Late Andrew Wright

A large number of readers have left messages of condolence on our Comments section. This morning the tributes have continued to arrive and we thought it best, given Andrew’s undoubted status in the piping world, to carry them with more prominence. We also include additional photographs from his long life in piping. Allan Hamilton of Pipers Persuasion: ‘We are sad at hearing of the passing of our friend Andrew. I…

Andrew Wright 1936 – 2022

The death has been reported of Andrew Wright, Dunblane, one of the outstanding pipers and teachers of the post war period. Andrew was 86. He began piping in the Boys Brigade and studied under Peter MacLeod Senior before moving on to P/M Donald MacLeod. It was when playing at the Braemar Gathering that he was called over by judge RB Nicol, Balmoral, who invited him for lessons. Andrew, an engineer…