The Royal Scottish Pipers’ Society held their annual competitions in their rooms in Edinburgh on April 24th and May 8th/9th. Overall Prizes: Pipe Major William Ross Cup – Colin MacNeill (above right); David J Ross Trophy – Charles Dunbar (above left). ‘A’ Piobaireachd: 1 C MacNeill (Beloved Scotland) 2 C Dunbar (Battle of Waternish) 3 J Frater (Roderick Mòr Macleod’s Sal.) 4 S Letford (Lament for the Laird of Contuillich)…
The 78th Fraser Highlanders band from Ontario have launched a crowd-funder to help pay for a professional recording of their pre-Worlds concert on August 12th. Entitled ‘True North Strong’, the concert will celebrate piping and drumming with a distinctly Canadian flavour. The 78th Frasers are a self-supporting organisation, the band’s members paying their own way to rehearsals and competitions at home and abroad. The fundraiser is intended to help offset…
A new book tracing the history of the World Pipe Band Championship is now available. ‘Around the Worlds’ has been a labour of love for the author, Iain Duncan, former RSPBA librarian and an Honorary Life Member of the Association. The book tracks the iconic championship from its inception to the present day. The sub-title is ‘The Development and Evolution of the Grade One World Pipe Band Championship and the…
It is several years since I was in Canada so I was pleased to accept an invitation to judge the Livingstone Invitational solo contest run by the Niagara-Hamilton Branch of the Pipers and Pipe Band Association of Ontario. You can get a direct flight from Glasgow and that brought me seven hours or so later to Toronto to be met by my old Muirheads friend Mike MacDonald, the man immortalised…
The Piobaireachd Society has published a new book on piping in the British Army. The author, the late military historian and amateur piper, Diana Henderson, describes the ways in which the great Highland bagpipe was taught in the British Army from 1650 to 1959. By quoting from original sources, the author outlines the extraordinary efforts of the Society in establishing and then supporting the ‘Army Class’, the foundation for today’s…
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