Piping Press

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…

Saint Thomas’ Episcopal School Pipe Band teaching programme in Texas has a received a major boost following the donation of $500,000 (£360,000) from school benefactors. STE will build a ‘world-class’ Scottish Arts Centre featuring practice rooms for piping and drumming, as well as a recording studio, thanks to the donation from Roy and Judith Shaw. They have agreed to donate up to $500,000 in matching donations to help rebuild its…