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…
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