Tickets are now on sale for The Captain John A MacLellan MBE Memorial Dinner & Recital Competition on Saturday 30th August 2025. The venue will be the Caledonian Hotel, Edinburgh and dress code is Black Tie.
Tickets are £65 and can be purchased on The Eagle Pipers’ Society website here. The following pipers have accepted invitations to play:
- Ian K. MacDonald (2024 winner)
- Iain Speirs (piobaireachd winner at The Captain John contest run by The Army School in 2024)
- Cameron Drummond (Argyllshire Gathering Gold Medallist 2024)
- Jamie Forrester (Argyllshire Gathering Gold Medallist 2022)
The judge will be Pipe Major Jimmy Banks MBE. Jimmy is Chairman of The Scots Guards Club in Haymarket who host the regular Eagle Pipers’ Society meetings.
There is a strong Edinburgh feel to the line-up this year which is particularly appropriate as this is one of Edinburgh’s few premier solo piping events. It also provides a rare platform for the playing of 20th Century piobaireachd. One of the key successes of the dinner is bringing Captain John’s tunes into the popular competitive repertoire. Jamie Forrester, who is part of the event for the first time this year, won his Oban Gold Medal in 2022 playing The Phantom Piper of Corrieyairack.
The event is once again indebted to the generous support of The William Grant Foundation.