Scottish Pipers Association Professional Contest 2022 Entries Open

We are delighted to announce that entries for the 2022 SPA Professional Contest, held in person on the 30th of April 2022 are now open, writes President Logan Tannock. Entries for each event will be strictly limited to 20 competitors so we recommend early registrations to guarantee your place. All entrants will need to create a membership on the SPA Website, and life members should contact gary.nimmo@scottishpipersassociation.co.uk to process their online membership….

Editor’s Notebook: Florida Academy/ Ukraine Piper/ Helensburgh Band Recruiting/ Tomintoul Losses/ March for Norman/ SPA AGM

The 2022 Florida Pipe & Drum Academy has concluded successfully with noticeable improvements in performance and knowledge. The school was the first since the ending of lockdown and, in 2019, the last before the pandemic hit. We only lost one year. Organiser Chris McKeown has expansion plans for next year. We finished with a visit to the North Florida games where many of the students competed with success in the…

CLASP ‘Live Online’ 5th February Competition Results

This competition took place, ‘Live Online’ using the Zoom platform. Amateur pipers from all over the world joined to compete ‘live’ on Saturday 5th February and captured their live performance using a video recording device, which was later sent to the judges. A special mention to the volunteer online stewards for the day; Gill Cairns, Anna Binder, Sally Mason, Caitlin Houlihan, Megan kenney and Lou Reid.  The next CLASP competition…

Northern Ireland Pipe Bands Gearing Up for Post Covid Comeback

The pipe band scene in Northern Ireland is making strides to get going again with bands resuming practices and plans being put in place by the RSPBA NI Branch for the season ahead. The RSPBA NI Branch Meeting took place on Saturday 29th January 2022 via Zoom and a draft contest programme was tabled. At the time only the Mid Ulster (Cookstown) and the Ulster (Ballymena) competitions were confirmed however…

Review – The Shasta Collection of Modern Piobaireachd

On being asked to review this recent publication I realised that I have stated many times in recent years that I am a supporter of modern piobaireachd composition. With further reflection the realisation dawned that many of the tunes in my repertoire I considered modern were approaching fifty years of age. I was facing an opportunity to take a look at much more recent compositions. The book reproduces the scores…