A Few Days in the US for the Balmoral Amateur Piping Championship

There is something to be said for travelling to the US via Dublin. There you can clear border control and avoid queues on the other side of the Atlantic. I got stuck in arrivals at Philadelphia last weekend in a crowd of 400 with three unhurried guys in kiosks checking passports. Result: missed connection and an unplanned overnight in Philly courtesy the helpful woman at the British Airways desk. By…

New Sunbelt Contest Results

This new invitational competition was held in Orlando, Florida, yesterday, November 12. Promoter Eric Stein reported an audience of 200. There were two events a Piobaireachd and a Medley. Piobaireachd1 Callum Beaumont, Phantom Piper of the Corrieyairick, $1,0002 Angus MacColl, Nameless Cherede Darievea, $7503 Ian K MacDonald, MacLeod of Colbeck’s Lament, $5004 Bruce Gandy, Battle of Waternish, $2505 Stuart Liddell, Unjust Incarceration, $100 Medley1 Glenn Brown, $1,0002 Stuart Liddell, $7503…

Editor’s Notebook: Balmoral Classic/ Logan Tannock/ Florence Allan/ Jimmy Banks

In Pittsburgh, PA, for the annual Balmoral Classic US Amateur Piping Championship. The judges are myself, Amy Garson and Lezlie Webster. The 12 competitors and their tunes: It should be a good competition. Lots of excellent prizes for the winners. I do a free workshop for all competitors on the Sunday. More details here. Pittsburgh is of course the home of Carnegie Mellon University where Jimmy McIntosh established the first…

John MacFadyen on the Art of Judging – Part 2

We continue the recording of John MacFadyen talking about judging. We are once again grateful to reader Jack McLachlan for forwarding the recording, made by John Davidson, Parkview, Johannesburg, at his home on 12th August 1973. John MacFadyen was visiting to run a piping school for the Scottish Piping Society of the Witwatersrand and gave this lecture the week before it was due to start. In this part of the…

Ulster News: Blackthorn Pipers/ RSPBANI AGM/ Show Returns/ Paddy Kelly/ Dundalk/ St Mary’s

On the third Wednesday of the months of September and October the Blackthorn Pipers Society welcomed guest pipers Kris Coyle and Ashley McMichael. Both of these Field Marshal Montgomery pipers were in outstanding form and videos of theirs and other players’ performances can be seen on the Blackthorn Society’s Facebook page. The Society meets in the Discover Ulster Scots Building, 1-9 Victoria Street Belfast BT1 3GA and it will continue…