On this day in history: James McIntosh wins 1st ever Grant’s Piping Championship, Blair Atholl, October 17th, 1974.
- 1925 Born in Dundee, Scotland
- 1939-49 served as Piper with the Cameron Highlanders, British Military forces
- 1950’s & 60’s – Taught piping in the Scottish public schools; : Introduced grading on ability rather than age, and instituted a class to prepare young pipers for an annual competition.
- 1961-70 – Studied exclusively with the Royal pipers at Balmoral, R.U. Brown and R.B. Nicol; Established a full-time bagpipe reed-making business.
- During this time he also developed the Naill chanter, which continues to be one of the favorite chanters of top Scottish competitiors.
- 1968-78- won most of the top level Scottish piping competitions. Served on the BBC Music Committee.
- 1978 – came to the USA for the first time at my invitation and co-founded the Balmoral School of Piping, based in Pittsburgh.
- 1984 Emigrated to the USA and settled in Pittsburgh
- 1980’s and 90’s: Through the Balmoral Schools Jim taught the only Americans to win the top solo competitions in Scotland: Mike Cusack and Mike Rogers, and taught many of the successful Scottish, Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand players as well.
- 1985 appointed Director Piping at Carnegie-Mellon University.
- 1989 instituted at CMU the first Bachelor of Performing Arts degree program for bagpipe music in the entire world;
- 1990-94 Elected for two terms as President of the EUSPBA
- 1994 Awarded the Member of the British Empire medal by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace for his contributions and services to traditional piping.
- 1998 retired from CMU
- 2002 was awarded the prestigious Balvenie Medal of Scotland for his services to piping.
- In 2003 founded the Balmoral Highlanders Pipe Band.
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