An Evening of Irish Music and Storytelling with Silent Auction Featuring Solstice will be held at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 1501 Monte Sano Ave.

Proceeds from the event will benefit the Augusta State University 2010 Ireland Study Abroad Program. Lillie Morris will be performing on the fiddle and vocals and Mike Hay will perform on the uilleann pipes, tin whistle and guitar.’

There will also be a variety of auction items available, some from Ireland.
Tickets are $10 at the door.

For more information, contact Debbie Van Tuyll at dvantuyl@aug.edu or Mariam Tafazoli at mtafazol@aug.edu.”

(Via The Augusta Chronicle.)

We have it on good authority that there are 2 minibus loads of ‘highly elated’ supporters of World Champion Inveraray & District Pipe Band’s Pipe Major, Stuart Liddell, on their way home from Blair Castle in Perthshire as we write.

Stuart Liddell has just won The 2009 Glenfiddich Piping Championships, for the first time and from a field of ten top pipers in the contest recognised as the World Championships for solo pipers.

From ForArgyll.Com

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.

Alan Bevan has always had a thing for bagpipes.

As a child, he would take his mom’s practice chanter (the pipe on which the melody is played), wrap it in a blanket and attach plungers to craft his own makeshift instrument.

Almost three decades of practice later, and Bevan is racking up the awards for his piping abilities.

His most recent accolade was on Sunday in Glasgow, Scotland, where he claimed the master’s invitational solo crown at the World Pipe Band Championships. He was among eight pipers invited to compete in the event.

via Abbotsford News – Pipe dream: Alan Bevan claims world title in Scotland.

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 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

• 1st  Connor Sinclair
• 2nd Ciaran Sinclair
• 3rd Ian Wilson
• 4th Craig Barbour
• 5th Billy Stewart
• 6th Rebecca Tierney

Full Results Click Here - Inveraray Solo Results at The National Piping Centre.

A GIRVAN army piper has won a hard fought contest to be named the armed forces champion player.

Sergeant Ross McCrindle has become the British Army Champion Piper 2009 after he took part in the event at the Army School of Bagpipe Music and Highland Drumming in Edinburgh on Saturday, March 15.

Ross, 30, started playing the bagpipes at the age of eight and was initally taught by the then Ayrshire Schools piping instructor Susan McIntyre.

Speaking to the Carrick Herald a former Girvan Primary and Girvan Academy pupil said: “Its a huge honour to have won the title of Army Champion Piper.

The Scots Guards were my preferred career option from an early age and I’m grateful for the time and effort they have invested in me. I’m also very grateful to my wife Cheri and my daughter Kyla who have been extremely supportive throughout the past 12 years in the Army. The Scots Guards are a first class opportunity for any young piper or drummer and an excellent way to make a living from what might otherwise remain a hobby.”

via Ayr Advertiser | News | Girvan Sergeant Named Champion Piper.

Two concerts are scheduled for 2PM and 8PM on Saturday, December 20 at Central Presbyterian Church located at 70 Maple Street in Summit, NJ. The “Pipes” will also return to New York City on Sunday, December 16 at the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, located at 921 Madison Avenue (at 73rd Street).

That concert begins at 2:30 PM. The New York performance is a benefit concert to support the Society’s scholarship program.

The program will feature the music of Christmas accompanied by a selection of readings taken from the Celtic literature of Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. Featured performers include Andrew Weir from the film “Braveheart,” the Scottish Country Dance trio Local Hero, the Solid Brass ensemble, Scottish harpist Jennifer Port, and the Kevin Ray Blandford Memorial Pipe Band of Redlands, CA.

Honorary Chairmen for the 2008 concert are Lord James Sempill, Chief of Clan Sempill and Convener of the Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs, Major General Euan Loudon, Chief Executive and Producer of the Edinburgh Military Tattoo and the Hon. Daniel F. Sullivan, New York Consul-General of Canada. The concert is sponsored in part by the Grand Summit Hotel in Summit, NJ.

Order Tickets Now

Tickets for the NJ matinee concert are $40 and are available via mail order. A downloadable ticket order form can be found on the concert’s website at www.pipesofchristmas.com. Tickets for the NY gala concert are $60 each and may be purchased online at www.smarttix.com or by phone at (212) 868-4444 or by mail order. Premium VIP seats are available at both venues through membership in the “Friends of the Pipes of Christmas.”

About “The Pipes of Christmas”

Since making its debut in 1999, The Pipes of Christmas has played to standing room only audiences. Given the popularity of the program, a second concert was added in 2001 to accommodate the high-demand for tickets.

That same year, the concert began an award-winning partnership with TV-36, Communities On Cable, by broadcasting concert highlights on Christmas Eve to an estimated 40,000 cable subscribers. Four of the Society’s productions were recipients of the prestigious Telly Award for television production excellence. In 2003, the concert was broadcast live on cable television as a fundraiser for the local community access station.

Now a cherished holiday institution, the concert has provided audiences with a stirring and reverent celebration of the Christmas season and the Celtic spirit. Audience-goers return year after year to experience the program, many reporting that the Pipes of Christmas has become part of their family’s annual Christmas tradition.

Over the last nine years, the concert has received great critical acclaim. In his review for Classical New Jersey Magazine, Paul Somers wrote, “The whole evening was constructed to introduce gem after gem and still have a finale which raised the roof. In short, it was like a well constructed fireworks show on the Glorious Fourth.” The Westfield (NJ) Leader described the concert as “a unique sound of power and glory nowhere else to be found.”

NY Metro Area to Celebrate Christmas with Pipes and Drums.

SFU Pipe Band CD Cover - "On Home Ground"

The SFU Pipe Band was the overall winner at the 2008 World Pipe Band Championships on August 16, 2008  won this year’s Grade 1.

 

2nd is Field Marshal Montgomery and 3rd is Shotts and Dykehead.

2008 World Champion Results

For full results check out the RSPBA World Pipe Band Championship Web Page.

World Champion Pipe Band Historical Results

The highly coveted Grade One title remained in Scotland until 1987, when the Canadian 78th Fraser Highlanders Pipe Band became the first overseas band to win. In recent years, the title has returned to Canada with Simon Fraser University Pipe Band, and has travelled to Northern Ireland with the Field Marshal Montgomery Pipe Band, as well as travelling all the way to Australia with the Victoria Police Pipe Band. The most successful pipe bands in this competition remain Strathclyde Police Pipe Band (winning twenty times), and the House of Edgar Shotts & Dykehead Caledonia Pipe Band (winning fifteen times). Other winners include the Dysart and Dundonald Pipe Band (winning twice), the Edinburgh Police Pipe Band (winning seven times), and the Muirhead and Sons Pipe Band (winning eight times).

Full List of Pipe Band Champions 1947 – 2008

Pipers aim to be on top of world – Hawick Today
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BBC NEWS | UK | Northern Ireland | City hosts pipe championships.

The Silver Chanter MacCrimmon Memorial Piobaireachd Competition – Times Online