Details have been announced for the 2015 Iain Dall MacKay contest to be held in Gairloch, Wester Ross, in September. The Iain Dall ‘Young Pipers’ Festival’ will be held in Gairloch Primary School on September 26th. The purpose of the festival is to encourage pipers aged under 18 to compete and enjoy their piping in a friendly and relaxing competition. There are eight classes: 1: March on practice chanter – primary…
The Army’s Ben Duncan picked up three first prizes at a cold and breezy Blair Atholl Games. Ben place first in the B Piobaireachd with the Lament for MacSwan of Roaig and first in the open MSR and H&J, thus continuing on the early season promise he showed at the Highlands & Islands Festival in Oban earlier in the month. A decent sized crowd were entertained by the band of the…
The Editor: Just to add a little flesh to my earlier comments about flaws in the grading system, I do think the whole business needs re-assessed with greater involvement of the judging fraternity. After all, it is the judges who sit through lengthy contests listening intently to each player as they come forward – something the current Competing Pipers’ Association Grading Committee don’t seem to do. They operate primarily on…
I am constantly, and pleasantly, surprised by the breadth of readership we get here at Piping Press. This week alone (Sun – Tues inc.) we have had 2,560 readers come to the site from, among others, the following countries: UK, USA, Canada, Australia, NZ, Germany, Netherlands, France, Ireland, Singapore, Hong Kong, Brazil, Oman and the Philipines. What is interesting too is that it is not always the current features that people are…
The opportunity to travel and meet interesting people is just one benefit that accrues to we pipers over the years, be it as a soloist or as a member of a band. Such a trip came my way in 1998 (I think) as a guest member of the Lothian and Borders Police Band. We went to Rome to play at a concert at the Vatican. Apart from the interest any…
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