Bagpipe News

The Fourth Annual Loch Hartwell Highland Games and Scottish Festival will be held Oct. 7-8 at the games site just south of Hartwell off US Highway 29.

Although the festival includes bagpipes, drums, Celtic art and border collies, the real action will be on the field.

Athletes will compete in a variety of events including the sheaf toss, the hammer throw and the most popular, caber toss.

Loch Hartwell Highland Games - Full Details

Scotland has no National Anthem, however, polls show ‘Flower of Scotland’ is first with 41%, for ‘Scotland the Brave’ second with 29% and ‘Highland Cathedral’ at 16% and running last was Robert Burns ‘classics’: ‘A Mans a Man for a Tha’ and ‘Scots Wha Hae’. Most Highland Games events often become confused as to what ‘appropriate’ tunes to play. The confusion continues, as the Scottish Parliament remains indecisive.

The Teatro das Figuras in Faro will celebrate World Music Day on Sunday 1st October with a show from the Gaiteiros de Lisboa, at 21.30hrs.

It is the first event on the October agenda of the Municipal Theatre of Faro, which englobes the theatres of Figuras and Lethes, amongst other connected structures.

Full Story

Print Event Information

Gaiteiros de Lisboa - Pipers of Lisbon Website

The seminar speakers will be three Irish folk musicians who shall be travelling with the President of Ireland on her state visit to Malta. They are Peter Browne, who plays Irish pipes (uilleann) and wooden flute, Brenda McCann, who plays the fiddle/violin and Tristan Rosentock, who plays the Irish drum (bodhrán). These three distinguished Irish musicians have extensive experience in music education and presentation as well as performance and will be talking about the characteristics and evolution of Irish music, besides giving a short musical demonstration of Irish music as well as explaining the characteristics of three traditional Irish instruments, that is the fiddle, the uilleann and the bodhrán.

Peter Browne is one of the foremost Irish pipers and music broadcasters in his home country. He has performed across Europe and North America and has featured as soloist with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, the Ulster Orchestra and the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland. He has performed in the Kennedy Centre, Washington DC. He has won the national uilleann-piping competition twice and also the prize for slow-air playing. Peter Browne’s recent projects include researching, presenting and producing documentaries on the lives and music of famous traditional players and producing a series of CDs of rare recordings of traditional music from the RTÉ Sound Archives.

Full Story

On this day in history: Royal Scots Dragoon Guards’ “Amazing Grace” reaches #1 in UK charts, September 29 1971.

Well known piping personality Harry Denyer, Northern Ireland, seriously ill after heart attack…. We will him a speedy recovery

Donald MacLeod Piobaireachd Tutorials Vol 1 - double CD Volume 1 Parts 1 & 2

Demonstrated in Canntaireachd, on the Practice Chanter and Spoken Word.

Disc 1 includes, The King’s Taxes, Lament for Patrick Og MacCrimmon, The Vaunting, Lament for Islay Flora Macleod, Park Piobaireachd No 2 and Struan Robertson’s Salute.

Disc 2includes, MacIntosh’s Lament, Roderick MacDonalds Salute, Lament for the Earl of Antrim, Queen Elizabeth the Second’s Salute and Nameless Hindro Hindro.

Halloweeen Ceilidh presented by the Rocky Mountain Pipe Band on October 28, 2006

Featuring Stephen’s Green
Location - the Acadia Recreation Centre (240 90 Ave SE)
Doors open at 7:30 PM
Tickets cost $15 (includes 1 beef on a bun) and may be purchased through
Ross Barker (245-3010 or 701-3217)

Rocky Mountain Pipe Band

Seven Certificates of Piping ability, four Certificates of Pipe Band Drumming ability, three Certificates in Pipe Band Studies and two Certificates for teachers of Piping are available. Details of the syllabus for each examination are provided in this document.

The organisations represented on the Piping and Drumming Qualifications Board (PDQB) are:

• The Army School of Bagpipe Music and Highland Drumming
• The College of Piping
• The National Piping Centre
• The Piobaireachd Society
• The Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association.

The first four organisations named above make up the Institute of Piping whose certificates ARE still recognised by the PDQB.

The College highly recommends that all candidates seek advice before putting themselves forward for any examination. That way unnecessary expense and dissapointment will be avoided. Examination fees must be paid to the College at the time an examination is booked.

Tests for all Certificates (less the Performers’ Certificate) will consist in each case of a practical, oral, and written examinations. Candidates must obtain a pass in both the practical and written examinations before a Certificate can be awarded. The tests for the Performers’ Certificate will consist of practical and oral examinations.

Click here for a flow chart of the new examination structure that will explain at a glance how you can advance through the certification process.

John R. “Bob” Hamilton, 71, of Edgewood and Ligonier, died Saturday, Sept. 23, 2006. John was a member of the US Air Force Drum and Bugle Corp and Bagpipe Unit that played at the funeral of President John F. Kennedy and an active member of First Presbyterian Church of Edgewood. Beloved husband of 48 years of Doris W. Hamilton. Loving father of John R. Jr. “Rob” (Lauri), LeighAnn Boatman (Jamie), Kerri Jean Wetzel (Robert) and Christopher Bruce (Gretchen). Grandfather of Aasta, Keaton, Calvin, Christopher, Sierra, Joshua, Robbie and Austin. Dear brother of Helen Crow, Laura Kingston and the late Ned Hamilton. A memorial service will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday in First Presbyterian Church of Edgewood. The family requests memorial contributions to the Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children, Oakland, or First Presbyterian Church of Edgewood. Arrangements by the THOMAS L. NIED FUNERAL HOME INC., Swissvale. Nied Funeral Home is a proud member of the Good Grief Center.

He was a highly regarded Piping Instructor who will be sadly missed. Our Deepest Sympathy to his Family.

2006 will mark the 50th Anniversary of White Spot Pipe Band.

Mark your calendars for September 29 & 30, 2006. Plans include:

- a Pub Night on Friday at the Sundance Inn, Ladner - Tickets $5/person &

- an Anniversary Dinner Party on the 30th at Sacred Heart School, Ladner - Tickets $30/person

White Spot Pipeband - Website

IN days gone by, the skirl of the pipes was used in battle to intimidate the enemy. In fact, so effective a ploy was it that in 1747 bagpipes were outlawed as a weapon by an Act of Parliament. And according to a story in Wednesday’s paper, Scotland’s national instrument still has the power to scare off some folk - only now it’s chasing away prospective tenants of a city-centre office block.

More than a year after it was completed, the prestigious new office development above the H&M store (the old C&A site) on Princes Street is still toiling to find a tenant, despite a string of inquiries - and the busking pipers who stand on the corner of Waverley Bridge are getting the blame.

It seems the thought of a day-long tartan/shortbread soundtrack accompanying office life is just too much for the building’s would-be occupiers to bear.

Now that’s understandable if, as has been claimed, not all the pipers are of a particularly high standard. As one shopper - a piper himself - commented: “There are a few bagpipers who take it in turns to play there. Some are very good but one, in particular, is not. I don’t think that on a hot day, when you have the windows open, I would like to have to listen to him for hours at a time.”

Of course, the development’s double-glazing should mean that the office workers will have their eardrums protected from the unwanted serenade, and surely, having had £60 million thrown at it, the block has some sort of air-conditioning installed that enables windows to be kept closed even on the hottest of Edinburgh days.

Perhaps making scapegoats of the pipers (even the grumpy one who turns his back on tourists when they try to photograph him if they haven’t popped a pound in his instrument case) is an easy option that hides a more worrying trend.

After all, pipers are as common on Princes Street as winos are in Hunter Square, yet other developments seem to be rented out fairly easily…

Scotsman - United Kingdom - Full Story

Carnoustie, Scotland, September, 16, 2006 - Ashleigh Bell of Muir of Ord, Scotland, was named the 2006 Scottish Junior Solo Piping Champion, adding her name to one of the oldest piping trophies in the world. James MacKenzie of the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, won the Champion of Champions prize for previous winners at the event still younger than 17. Bell receives airfare to compete at the George Sherriff Amateur Invitational Solo Piping Competition in Hamilton, Ontario, in November. MacKenzie wins enrollment in one of the Balmoral Piping Schools in the United States. The event is put on by the Practical Pipers’ Society.

Scottish Junior Champion, 2006 (13-16 Years)
1st Ashleigh Bell (wins a set of Shepherd pipes)
2nd Faye Henderson, Kirriemuir, Scotland
3rd Jonathon Graham, Bishopbriggs, Scotland

Piper and Drummer - Full Story

Ottawa - September 23, 2006 - Andrew Hayes was the aggregate winner in his home town at the invitational contest that pays tribute to his late father and Canadian emergency workers who died on the job. All proceeds from the event go to the Police Officers’ Memorial Fund.

Piobaireachd
1st Sean McKeown, Toronto, “Lament for the Only Son”
2nd Glenn Brown, Milton, Ontario, “The Big Spree”
3rd Andrew Hayes, “I Got a Kiss of the King’s Hand”

Pat Hayes Memorial MSR
1st Andrew Hayes
2nd Ian K. MacDonald, Whitby, Ontario
3rd Roderick MacLean, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Piper and Drummer - Full Story

The Robert-Malcolm Memorial II Pipe Band has been promoted to Grade 1 officially by the British Columbia Pipers’ Association, after the band completed an almost undefeated season in Grade 2 and took home the first prize in that Grade at the World Pipe Band Championships in August.

The Robert-Malcolm Memorial II band is part of the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band system, which comprises now two Grade 1 bands, bands in Grade 3 and Grade 4, and an “Alumni” band.

Piper and Drummer - Full Story

On this day in history: Capt John MacLellan wins MSR at Inverness, completing “Grand Slam,” September 25, 1958.

Bob Hamilton learned to play the bagpipes at age 16 as a way to honor the memory of his father, who emigrated to the United States from Scotland.
Mr. Hamilton became a familiar figure throughout Western Pennsylvania, attired in his ancient green hamilton tartan. He piped at hundreds of weddings, funerals, socials, church events and clan outings, including the Ligonier Highland Games.

John R. “Bob” Hamilton, 71, of Edgewood and Ligonier, a former employee of the Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children in Oakland, died of heart and kidney problems on Saturday, Sept. 23, 2006, at his home.

Pittsburgh Live - Full Story

ANTIGONISH — A local woman’s piping prowess has earned her honours in the cradle of bagpipe music.

Andrea Boyd, 23, who started playing at nine, cleaned up on her international competition at a series of piping contests in Scotland this summer.

Now back home in Antigonish after spending the summer working and making music in Scotland, the 2006 St. Francis Xavier University political science graduate had time Friday to reflect on her success.

“It was a really, really good year for me — kind of a breakthrough year,” she said.

Her roll started in July, when she competed on three consecutive days at three islands in the Hebrides — the only Canadian among 25 competitors from Scotland, Northern Ireland, Brittany and the United States. On July 19 she won the overall trophy at the South Uist Highland games; and the next day at Benbecula she won the prestigious title Young Piper of the Year.

The following day at North Uist she won a first in the jig, second in the strathspey and reel, third in the March and third in the piobaireachd (the classical music of the Highland bagpipe) to earn a trophy for the highest aggregate.

One of just three females in the 35-member Scottish pipe band Boghall and Bathgate, she competed Aug. 12 at the world pipe band championship for an overall fifth for the band. The next weekend saw her winning the solo march, strathspey and reel, at Crieff.

“Crieff is the warm-up for the Argyllshire Gathering,” she said, referring to her next competition, an Aug. 23-24 invitation-only solo competition in Oban.

There she won at the silver level in the classic piobaireachd discipline and at B level in the light music discipline, moving her to a higher level for future competitions…

the Chronicle Herald - Full Story

… year. He’s the only bagpipe major in the country and if he graduates,
he’ll only be the third person to ever get the degree. The …

CBS News - New York,New York,USA - Full Story

All the music majors at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh practice side by side in small rehearsal rooms, CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman reports in this week’s Assignment America. That is, all but one. They make Nick Hudson practice in the basement of a whole other building.

Such is the life of America’s only college bagpipe major.

Nick is a sophomore on Carnegie Mellon’s bagpipe scholarship. The school offers it ever year, but Nick is one of the few to ever actually take it.

“There’s something about the sound. You either love it or you hate it,” he says.

Needless to say, it takes a confident kid to do this — or a lazy one.

“It’s only nine notes,” Nick says. “It’s all about how you play those nine notes.”

CBS News - New York,New York,USA