Jeannie Campbell MBE received the Balvenie Medal as part of the Glenfiddich Piping Championship event on October 25, 2025, at Blair Castle in Perthshire.
The medal was presented by Tabby Angier who has been an longtime contributor to Piping Times and bagpipe.news. Tabby prepared and read the script below for Jeannie’s presentation.
Jeannie needs no introduction to long time readers of piping periodicals and literature. Tabby’s words below capture perfectly what Jeannie Campbell MBE has contributed to piping throughout her lifetime. I’d just like to add how special it is for bagpipe.news to continue to publish Jeannie’s research work on the Argyllshire Gathering and many other research articles she offers.
A few of Jeannie’s books are available from thebagpipeshop.co.uk and lookout for an updated book on Highland Bagpipe Makers to come in the next few months.
By Tabby Angier, Glenurquhart
Ladies and Gentlemen, it is a great privilege to be here today to introduce this year’s recipient of the prestigious Balvenie Medal for services to piping.
The person we honour today has dedicated a lifetime to the music and culture of the Great Highland Bagpipe. Yet, to introduce this individual only by their best-known role would be to diminish a career defined by both tireless scholarship and extraordinary, pioneering service to the piping community.
This recipient’s legacy is defined by a passionate devotion to the art form and a profound desire to make its heritage accessible to all. We must first, therefore, look at the immense institutional impact this individual has had.
For many years, this person was at the operational heart of one of piping’s great institutions, the College of Piping. Here, they helped establish an educational vision of great scope.
One of their most outstanding contributions was driving the initiative to open up the College’s ample collections, ensuring they were accessible not only to academics but to all students. The careful catalogues compiled, the order brought to the material, and the generous personal assistance provided a testament to their character as well as their scholarship, and created an educational environment that has been rated second to none.
Furthermore, this dedication to access was expanded to the general public. This individual literally opened the College doors by establishing the City’s first Piping Museum. It is impossible not to admire the thought and consequence in quietly establishing such a wide-ranging educational resource.
The depth of respect that this individual commands in the piping world is reflected in a truly groundbreaking achievement: they were the first person of their gender to be elected President of the Scottish Pipers’ Association (SPA). Furthering this, they were reappointed numerous times, serving as the longest-serving President in the association’s history, holding the office from 1993 to 2012.
In this leadership role, they executed a thoughtful move that changed the landscape of the SPA’s professional competition. By moving the annual event from spring to a central August weekend, they transformed it into an international event, attracting players from around the world and broadening the association’s social and musical horizons.
All of these achievements are tied together by a foundational commitment to the history and preservation of piping. This person is, simply put, the very custodian of tradition.
This recipient’s research and writing have produced an unsurpassed library of knowledge. Their books have become the bedrock of any serious piping collection—essential reading for pipers and scholars across the globe. From ground-breaking volumes on the history of the bagpipe itself and careful cataloguing of its makers and instruments, they have rescued countless stories and facts from oblivion. Their contribution of hundreds of articles to many piping periodicals including the Piping Times continues to offer researchers and enthusiasts insight into the piping world. More recent work focussed on pipe bands and The Story of The College of Piping, and with a forensic eye for detail, has brought together a vast amount of information for which scholars will forever be indebted.Â
This individual has illuminated forgotten names, uncovered hidden connections, and, through painstaking research, given us a far richer understanding of how the bagpipe shaped Scotland’s past and continues to shape its present. The work is not merely a preservation of facts, but of the very spirit of pipe music—a spirit that is deeply traditional, yet endlessly alive.
Today, we honour a life dedicated not to personal glory, but to serving what this person loves most: Piping.
Everyone, please join me in celebrating this remarkable recipient of the Balvenie Medal, a Piper, a Pioneering Leader, a Museum Curator, an Author, and the Guardian of Scotland’s Piping Heritage: Jeannie Campbell.