By Neill Mulvie Judging practice chanter competitions is fraught with danger. It is surprising how often the competitor’s tutor and even parents feel they themselves are being judged and some are not shy in letting the judge know when they are not happy with the result. And some can be […]
From the 18th century onwards the great highland bagpipe became established in the US with the large numbers of Scots and Ulster Scots settlers. The earliest records show that in 1700, the total population of the 13 colonies was 250,888, of whom 3% (7,527) were ethnically Scottish. Today. the number […]
Young piper, Bradley Parker, is among six musicians to win through to the finals of the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician Award 2021. Bradley is from Portavogie in County Down, Northern Ireland and was until recently a member of Field Marshal Montgomery Pipe Band with whom he won the […]
Next year’s annual Archie Kenneth Quaich competition has been moved to the spring in the hope that it may be able to take place in-person. A spokesman for The Piobaireachd Society said it is keen to hold a face-to-face contest but considers that February is too early even with the […]
The line-up up for the digital-first Celtic Connections festival has been released – and there is, sadly but expected, a dearth of piping. The 2021 festival will be held entirely online every night between January 15-February 2, 2021. There are but a handful of concerts that will be of interest […]
In September 1987 the Piping Times began a series called ‘Famous pipers’. Bessie Brown was the first piper to feature. The following month, at that year’s Glenfiddich, Bessie was awarded the Balvenie Medal for services to piping. She died in 1992. Below, we reproduce Seumas’ feature on Bessie. By Seumas […]
Two of Scotland’s leading live folk musicians are donating all their merchandise sales today to a Glasgow food bank. Pipers Ross Ainslie and Ali Hutton are encouraging other musicians to do the same. In 2009, there was one food bank in Scotland. There are now 52 in Glasgow alone compared […]
I was thrilled by the prospect of Matthew Welch’s new book, A New Compleat Theory for the Highland Bagpipe immediately I read about it. Having been familiar with Matt’s playing for some years, and with his innovative work both as a composer and in collaboration with some of the US’ […]
The RSPBA has made tentative dates for some band competitions and championships for 2021. Clearly, they are dependent on current restrictions in Scotland and Northern Ireland being severely reduced by next spring. They are: British Championships (Paisley) – May 22Markinch Games – June 6UK Championships (Lurgan, Northern Ireland) – June […]
John Dew, one of our leading piping talents, has produced his debut collection of pipe music. The book, titled simply Pipe Tunes, contains over 80 new compositions entirely from the Crieff-born piper’s pen. The book is available at £19.50 but this will increase to £22.00 on December 14. There will […]
