Home from Scotland!

I just returned home from another trip to Scotland. What a month it has been! This year I posted regular updates of my travels and competitions on twitter (twitter.com/bagpipelessons).

I'll be posting more photos, stories, and details, but here are some of the highlights!

-1st Place Open 'A' Strathspey & Reel Cowal Highland Gathering (The McCallum Challenge Trophy) [first American Winner]
-1st Place Open Piobaireachd at Birnam Highland Games [two-time winner]
-1st Place Open Strathspey & Reel at Birnam Highland Games [three-time winner]
-1st Place Overall Most Points at Birnam Highland Games (The Sinagoca Cup) [three-time winner]
-Best Dressed Piper at the Cowal Highland Gathering [two-time winner]

And I played with the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band winning the World Pipe Band Championships for the second time in a row! We also performed a completely sold-out concert at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall which was recorded and will be released as a CD soon.

(Thanks to Michael O'Reilly for the photo!)

WORLD CHAMPIONS 2009!

It has been a very exciting week. I traveled to Scotland with the SFU Pipe Band for two big events.

On Wednesday, we performed a sold out concert at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. The show was a big success -- a great response from the crowd and great reviews online. The concert was recorded and will be released as a CD recording soon.

On Saturday, we played at the World Pipe Band Championships where we repeated as World Pipe Band Champions! We won both events: the MSR (March, Strathspey, and Reel) and the Medley. Our drummers won the award for best drum corps, and we won the overall title. It felt great to play well in both events and very gratifying to be rewarded with great scores from the judges (we received 5 firsts, two seconds, and one third from the 8 judges!).

The BBC provided live streaming coverage of the event so our friends and fans around the world could enjoy the big event live.

There is a ton of media coverage online. Here's some for you to enjoy.

The news story and results from Pipes|Drums.

Documentary footage of the big day by SFU's own filmmaker, Thomas Buchan:


Article and video about the band's concert and preparing for the Worlds.

Video and article with footage of the Worlds and the celebrations!

High-quality video of the World Championship winning Medley from the BBC.

Interview with Pipe Major Terry Lee on CBC's As It Happens:

News video from Canada's Global News.

Scotland's SECC TV:


Donald MacLeod's Piobaireachd Field of Gold from the Concert.

SFU Pipe Band FREE Concert

The SFU Pipe Band (my pipe band), will be giving a free concert on Sunday, August 2nd, on the Burnaby campus of SFU.
 The concert begins at 2 P.M. Sunday on the Academic Quadrangle Lawn on the Burnaby Mountain campus.

Bring lawn chairs, sun umbrellas, hats, sunscreen, etc.


It’s a warm-up for our sold out concert in the Royal Glasgow Concert Hall on Aug. 12—and then the World Championship on Glasgow Green on Aug. 15.