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Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Deja Vu for SFU!



Just days after playing for a packed house at the Royal Glasgow Concert Hall and recording a live CD, SFU took their masterful playing and wicked tone to the competition circle where they won both events at the World Pipe Band Championships on Saturday. This is the second year in a row that SFU has taken home the title and the 6th time in 14 years.

I immensely enjoyed staying up all night on Friday watching the BBC live broadcast. I am hoping that this becomes a yearly tradition. Or better yet, I hope I can attend! It was also fun chatting live with other piping fiends via facebook and commenting as the competition progressed. What an amazing technological world we live in!

Other highlights included the Dowco Triumph Street Pipe Band playing well enough to make it through the qualifier in the morning and play very respectably in the final on their first time out in grade one at the worlds and sentimental favorite Saint Laurence O'Toole from Dublin break into the top 3 after 10 years of gridlock at the worlds. It was very satisfying to watch local talents Justin Howland and Ross Morrill play so well in TSPD! Congratulations and thanks to all the bands who work so hard to set the world standard in piping and help our art progress.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Off to Scotland!


Well, it's that time of year again. A little over a week from now over 8,000 pipers and drummers from all over the world will take the field at Glasgow Green to compete for the title of "world champions".


I would like to take this opportunity to wish good luck to three home grown pipers that will be competing in the grade 1 contest. Marching to the line in the grade 1 arena at the worlds is something many pipers dream of for years and most never realize. Congratulations to Sylvia DeTar of the current world champion SFU Pipe Band and Justin Howland and Ross Morril of Dowco Triumph Street.