Applications are now being invited from pipers who wish to study for a Higher National Diploma in piping. The course is a new one, lasts two years and is run by the National Piping Centre in the city centre of Glasgow, Scotland. The course commences from this autumn (September). A […]
Regular readers will recall our post on Jeannie Campbell’s discovery of a rare photograph showing Willie Lawrie receiving his Gold Medal at the 1910 Northern Meeting. The post also included two other rare photographs from that year’s competition, one of which [pictured] shows four judges who were seated, hidden from […]
By Stuart Letford Duncan Johnstone wasn’t really one for competitions – his 1964 victory in the Scottish Pipers’ Association’s Knockout series was pretty much his only foray into solo piping contests. As he put himself, “I was never interested in whether I could beat this man or the next. I […]
Regular readers will recall our post on Jeannie Campbell’s discovery of a rare photograph showing Willie Lawrie receiving his Gold Medal at the 1910 Northern Meeting. The post also included two other rare photographs from that year’s competition, one of which [pictured] shows four judges who were seated, hidden from […]
Where are you from and how did you get into piping? I was born in western North Carolina but I now live in South Carolina. As a young boy, my dad took my sisters and me to the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games in Linville, NC. This was in 1957 or 1958, […]
We are saddened to learn of the death of Willie Gilmour, aged 80. Willie had a long association with the College of Piping that included spells as a teacher and as a member of its executive committee. Willie was also a popular piping instructor in the schools of east Ayrshire. […]
By Burgess Hay Today is the 275th anniversary of the Battle of Culloden. As I stand here beside, but not on, the windy moor, I find it impossible not to reflect on the winds of change that swept through highland society and through piping, in particular, in the months and […]
One of Glasgow’s best-known eateries reopens on April 26. The Pipers’ Tryst is the hospitality side of the National Piping Centre and has been acknowledged as a jewel in Glasgow’s culinary crown for years. It comprises an award-winning restaurant/bar and hotel. The Scottish Government last week advised that outdoor socialising […]
With the COVID situation in France worsening, organisers of the annual Lorient Interceltic Festival say there will be no pipe bands or dancers this year. Methill Pipe Band, Strathallan Pipe Band and Prince Charles Pipe Band (San Francisco) had been lined up to travel to Brittany to take part in […]
By Roderick D. Cannon When attempting to compare Gesto’s canntaireachd staff notation we have some helpful resources which we can call upon. There are some other written records of canntaireachd, especially one compiled by Angus MacKay consisting of short quotations of tunes. They are quite possibly from Angus’s father, but […]
The music of John MacCrimmon – the ‘Gesto Canntaireachd’ — Part 2 By Roderick D. Cannon We don’t know exactly when Niel MacLeod of Gesto started collecting his music or how long he spent on it. We do know, however, that the collection had taken shape by 1815, because in […]
The music of John MacCrimmon – the ‘Gesto Canntaireachd The 2015 College of Piping Lecture took place at the Birnam Hotel in Perthshire, Scotland in March of that year. Professor Roderick – Roddy – Cannon, who had been preparing his latest book for publication – The music of John MacCrimmon […]
By Stuart Letford Duncan Johnstone wasn’t really one for competitions – his 1964 victory in the Scottish Pipers’ Association’s Knockout series was pretty much his only foray into solo piping contests. As he put himself, “I was never interested in whether I could beat this man or the next. I […]
In our report last week of the passing of Jock Duncan we made mention of 19th century Aberdeenshire piper, Francie Markis. In an article published in March 1990 in Common Stock, the journal of the Lowland & Border Pipers’ Society (LBPS), Jock unearthed information on Markis. Although the article shed […]
