By Chris MacKenzie Piping Today sprung to life in 2002 as a development of The Piping Centre’s Notes pamphlet and went on to document the multifaceted world of piping. The casual observer may wonder what on earth there is to fill one issue of a piping-related magazine, let alone 101 […]
The National Piping Centre (NPC) today launches a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds to protect the legacy of its two magazines, the Piping Times and Piping Today. The two-strand project involves the digitisation of the magazines’ archive – a resource that will be free to access online – and the […]
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 it himself: “I was never interested in whether I could beat this man or the next. […]
A new event to celebrate the life and works of Duncan Johnstone, the influential piper, teacher and composer, took place in early March at the National Piping Centre (NPC) in Glasgow, Scotland. The event was recorded at the National Piping Centre in strict adherence to all Scottish Government social distancing […]
The late 1980s was a period of transition in piping. In 1987 the 78th Fraser Highlanders became the first overseas pipe band to win the World Pipe Band Championships and in 1988 Ottawa-born Amy Garson would be the first female invited to compete at the Glenfiddich. The 1988 Glenfiddich was […]
The 10 invitees to compete at the 2020 Glenfiddich Solo Piping Championships have been confirmed. The pipers who will take to the stage – and, in brackets, the number of times they have won the overall title – are: • Finlay Johnston (2)• Callum Beaumont • Jack Lee (2)• Roddy […]
While clearing out my garage last month I stumbled across two boxes. Each was packed with VHS video cassettes – remember them? – of various films and comedies over the years. Mostly from the 1970s and 80s, of course. There were three piping tapes in the box: MacKinnon Productions’ West […]
Finlay MacDonald, pictured, a member of staff at the National Piping Centre (NPC) for almost 20 years, has been appointed Artistic Director of this year’s Piping Live! Glasgow International Festival of Piping, the world’s largest bagpipe festival. MacDonald has been involved with the festival’s programming since its inception in 2003. […]
By Iain MacInnes (From the February 2020 Piping Times) Scotland’s musical roots run deep, and on the evidence of this new CD, have spread far. Recorded in Arlington in Washington State on the west coast of the USA, Westering Home features two distinctive musical strands: the Highland pipe tradition as […]
The National Piping Centre today begins the process to fill two leading roles within its business, that of Director of Piping and Director of the National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland. The positions became vacant after the recent resignations of Roddy MacLeod and Alisdair MacLaren in the respective roles. The […]
