From the January 2010 « Emerald Society of the Boston Police:

Battle of the Bagpipe Bands

“February 27th will be the date of the first annual ‘Battle of the Bagpipe Bands’ from 1:00 to 5:00 pm at the St Nectarius Church hall across the street from 10 Birch Street. The bands will be dressing and lining up at our hall and marching across the street to compete. After the competition we will be hosting an after party from about 7:00 pm to midnight. Mark this date in your calendar. We are looking to have between ten to fifteen bands competing. This will be an early start to St. Patrick’s Day. It will be a great way for the entire family to celebrate their Celtic roots. More details will be in the next newsletter and in some of the local publications as well.”

(Via www.bpdemeraldsociety.com – Read Full Article.)

Saturday 5th December 2009

South Island Major Events | New Zealand Travel Blog:

“A Scottish tradition in Christchurch, this pipe band contest is one on the circuit of regional contests, attracting bands from all over New Zealand. A full day of New Zealand’s finest pipe band performances starts at 8.30am with the solo piping and drumming competition with highland dancing exhibitions. From 12.30pm, the bands compete culminating with the splendid massed bands street march.”

(Via newzealand-touring.com – Read Full Article.)

New York School 2010

15th – 19th February 2010

In 2010 we have made some changes to our school to allow you more flexibility in the schedule.

As normal we have an option for piping and drumming students to be taught throughout the entire week in groups of similar ability where instruction is given on all aspects of piping and a variety of new music is covered. The all inclusive cost of this option is $600.

This year we have also introduced the options of two half week piping packages (each priced at $300) which are entirely workshop based. From Monday to Wednesday we offer a series of workshops suitable for Novice – Intermediate standard pipers and from Wednesday to Friday we offer a second workshop series for Intermediate to Advanced level pipers. The workshops offered can be viewed on the New York School page on our website – scroll down to find a PDF brochure. I am sure you will agree there is excellent coverage of a number of major topics on offer.

In order to be as flexible as possible we are also making the piping workshops available as a pick ‘n mix option for $40 per workshop so that students can come to as few or as many as they wish. All of these options are available to book online here

We are offering an “early bird special” which will run from now until the 1st January 2010 where students will receive 10% off the quoted price. In addition to this we are offering a family discount of 10% (two or more people from the same family) and a band discount of 10% (five members or more of the same band). This early bird special is available online via the booking form page.

The school is held during President’s week so we hope that having it during this vacation will make it easier for you to attend. Also, we link in with the Metro Cup piping competition which is to be held on February 20th at the Holiday Inn, Newark. This event showcases some of the worlds top pipers in competition including some of our instructors so we hope this might appeal to you as a great way to end a fantastic week of piping.

I really hope that you might consider coming to our New York school. For more information on the school and booking please visit www.thepipingcentre.co.uk/schools/new-york/ and for information on the Metro Cup please visit www.themetrocup.com/

I would be pleased if you would pass this on to your band members and anyone else you believe would be interested in our school.

Sincerely,

Roddy MacLeod MBE,
Principal

The National Piping Centre Ltd.
Registered in Scotland no. 139271, Charity no. 020391
The Piping Centre Trading Ltd.
Registered in Scotland no. 162342
Glasgow International Piping Festival.
Registered in Scotland no. 256248, Charity no. 34875

Last chance this year to start learning to play the pipes with Capital Region Celtic.

Every journey starts somewhere and learning to play the pipes starts here with a 10 week course.

You will learn on the practice chanter to correctly play the scale, embellishments and a tune or two.

The weekly 6:30 to 7:30 pm class starts on Tuesday November 10th and runs for 10 weeks with Christmas and New Years off.

No experience is necessary. You don’t have to know how to read music. You don’t have to have huge lungs.

Read More and Contact Band

October 24th was the 2nd annual Ceol Na Pioba Solo Bagpipe Competition. Even though the planning kept me busy, I got to compete and enjoy the camaraderie.

BOSSIER CITY PIPER

The Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland (CBOI) will return to the US on Thursday, October 29 at 8 p.m. with a performance at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, New York City. The CBOI is an acclaimed youth orchestra comprised of 130 children ages 12-24 with Catholic and Protestant backgrounds from all over Ireland.

The CBOI’s performance, “The Crossing: Celebrating Cultures and Connections,” will be led by renowned conductor Maestro Gearoid Grant and will include performances from tenor Emmanuel Lawler and uilleann piper Patrick Martin. In addition, the acclaimed Drum and Piping Corps will perform as well as over 500 children from New York City area schools, including St. Sebastian’s (Woodside, NY), St. Margaret’s (Pearl River), Fairfield County Children’s Choir (Fairfield, CT), St. Williams the Abbott School (Seaford, NY.)

Read Full Article

For the second time in three years, a Scottish figure advertising this weekend’s Highland Games and Clan Gathering in Winston was plucked from the side of the road.

The 12-foot Scottish bagpiper, which represents Douglas County Scottish Society member and Oakland resident Cy Swan, was stolen from its post on Diamond Lake Boulevard. There are at least nine of the figures spread throughout the county.

The same incident occurred in 2006, but the thieving teenager felt guilty after learning from a News-Review story the value of the stolen cutout and came clean. She and three of her cohorts had reportedly crammed the Scot into the back of a Toyota Tacoma. The Scottish Society did not press charges.

This year’s stolen figure is wearing a traditional green kilt, matching knee-high socks and a sky-blue shirt. It has reddish-brown hair, a black cap and is playing a bagpipe.

Tom Paulson, who helped create the Scottish figures, said each one took about three to six days to complete and the hand painted men and women weigh about 100 pounds apiece.

According to longtime Scottish society member Donna Hunter, the figures are more than just plywood cutouts advertising the Games.

“They’re actually a work of art,” she said.

Hunter said the society is desperate to reclaim the missing Scot. If the piper finds its way back to the Scottish society unharmed, no charges will be pressed.

“They’re very important to our group,” Hunter said. “We’re just really crossing our fingers on it.”

Anyone with information about the stolen piece may call the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office tip line at 957-2099 or Paulson at 673-1715.

via Scottish bagpiper stolen, again | The News-Review – NRtoday.com.

Over 60 Pakistanis from the Lahore pipe band and a trade group have been refused entry to the UK by the UK Border Agency.

The pipe band members were due to attend the World Pipe Band Championships on Saturday in Glasgow, Scotland. This would have been the fifth year running the Pakistan Pipe Band would have attended the competition.

The trade group were due for business talks in the same city but were also rejected. They included members of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Lahore District Government, all had been due to arrive in city for trade meetings.

The deputy mayor of Lahore was granted a visa.

The Scottish Government would like more powers from Westminister and one of them would be to aprove and reject Scotlad’s own visa applications.

Westminster’s decisions are sometimes thought not to be the best by some for Scotland especially when it comes to what kinds of foreign workers the UK needs as Scotland doesn’t always need what England needs.

via Over 60 Pakistani officials & pipeband players refused entry into UK.

The 45-member SFU Pipe Band came out on top today (August 15) in the World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow.

Its the band’s sixth title and second consecutive victory. Its performance was judged superior to the runnerup, the Field Marshal Montgomery Band of Northern Ireland, as well as third-place finisher, the St. Laurence O’Toole band from Ireland.

The SFU band also came first in the March, Strathspey and Reel competition. Its drum corps was judged the best overall drum corps, and won the MSR section of drumming competition.

via SFU Pipe Band wins second straight world title | Vancouver, Canada | Straight.com.

As the annual festival of Piping Live! kicks in, Claire Sawers finds there are plenty of fans on hand to debunk the aging myths about bagpipes

In Germany they’ve got the doodlesack; in Sweden, the säckpipa; and in Italy, the zampogna. Nearly every country in Europe has some version of the bagpipe, giving the instrument a range and diversity that stretches way beyond that lone piper standing in his kilt on Princes Street, squeaking out ‘Scotland the Brave’ for tourists in ponchos.

Roddy MacLeod, director of Piping Live!, the international festival that attracted 25,000 visitors last year to Glasgow, thinks people will be surprised at how vast the modern day piper’s repertoire is. ‘Everyone has heard a piper playing ‘Highland Cathedral’ or ‘Scotland the Brave’, he says. ‘But new music is written for pipes all the time – from all around the world. Modern technology also means pipes can now be recorded and balanced with other instruments without drowning them out, so we’re seeing more experimental styles cropping up. The festival was set up six years ago to bring those styles together.’

via Bag of tricks: Piping Live! | The List.

The rolling hills south of Salinas will carry the sounds of bagpipes, the sights of sheepdogs and men in kilts as the 42nd annual Monterey Scottish Games and Celtic Festival takes place at Toro Park.

via Scots, kilts and bagpipes set for annual Scottish Games and Celtic Festival at Toro Park | thecalifornian.com | The Salinas Californian.

The Simon Fraser University Pipe Band, five times world champion, is hosting a free concert on Sunday, Aug. 2, at SFU’s Burnaby campus.
 For the band, it’s a warm-up for a concert in the Royal Glasgow Concert Hall on Aug. 12—and then the world championship on Glasgow Green on Aug. 15. In that, SFU is seeking its sixth world crown. There will be 200 bands from 16 nations competing.
 For concert-goers, Sunday’s concert offers a chance to meet the pipers and drummers and ask about their music and skills.

Fans can park free on Lot B or Lot C on the Burnaby campus.

Jori Chisholm playing The Battle of Auldearn, #2 to win the Professional Piobaireachd Competition at the Portland Highland Games solo bagpiping at the Mt. Hood Community College Theater.

Part 1

Part 2

ONLY in Scotland could musicians playing our national music to a world class level be so despised.

It beggars belief that the philistines who occupy police headquarters at Pitt Street in Glasgow could plot the demise of the iconic ensemble that is Strathclyde Police Pipe Band – and gloat about it in the name of force efficiency, as did Chief Superintendent John Pollock last Friday.

His outburst stuck in the craw of every right-thinking Scot.

No one should be under any illusion as to what the future of the band is.

Morale is so low that I doubt they will exist next year and a 123-year tradition, a proud history of 22 World Pipe Band Championship titles and the affection of an entire community will be gone.

Can you imagine the Royal Marines telling their musicians they weren’t needed any more? To say it costs hundreds of thousands of pounds to keep the band going is nonsense. They receive £29,500 per year from the force.

via Can you imagine the Royal Marines telling their musicians that they weren’t needed any more? – Scotsman.com News .

Someone once said the definition of a gentleman is a person who knows how to play the bagpipes — and doesn’t.

But don’t tell that to the scores of pipers who will be taking part in the 18th annual Canadian International Military Tattoo at Copps Coliseum tonight and tomorrow.

And don’t think of mentioning it to the thousands of enthusiastic military band fans who will come out and cheer for more at the event that will feature five pipe bands and six other military bands.

One of the pipers will be Chief Warrant Officer (retired) John Terence, of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada.

via TheSpec.com – Local – Bring on the bagpipes .

World Pipe Band Championships 2009

The showpiece event of the Glasgow International Piping Festival (10–16 Aug, around Glasgow, www.pipingfestival.co.uk), is the World Pipe Band Championships. There are those who find the sound of the bagpipes an acquired taste to say the least, but many with a Scottish connection also find the massed sound of pipers and drummers in a pipe band particularly stirring – not surprising, considered these bands were historically first formed within military regiments.

Sat 15 Aug, Glasgow Green (H6), 0141 221 5414

The New Westminster Police Pipe Band and other well known performers are holding a Celtic evening at Massey Theatre June 25.

Entitled Pipe Up, the program includes selections by the New Westminster Pipe Band—current Grade 2 Pacific Northwest champions—as well as the reigning world champion SFU Pipe Band.

The concert will also mark the North American debut of The Shee, an all-female band from Scotland, which combines powerful vocals and instrumental prowess. The group performs Scottish folk, Gaelic and Bluegrass music.

via New Westminster News Leader – Police, SFU pipe band performs.

The Black Bear is a popular tune and was recently requested by a piper through my website. It is a small two parted tune, yet some of the clarity and timing especially in the second part is not easily interpreted by some less experienced pipers. My video and audio files should help in this regard.

via The Black Bear, Bagpipe Lessons by PM Bill Robertson .

The World Pipe Band Championships is heading out on tour for the first time this year as part of Scotland’s Homecoming celebrations, paying a visit to some of the summer’s top events.

The Homecoming Scotland Road to the Worlds will see various pipe bands appearing at events across the UK in the build up to the championships – the world’s biggest pipe band competition - which return to Glasgow Green this August.

via World Pipe Band Championships on Homecoming road this summer | Music | STV Entertainment.