A TENTH anniversary dinner at the National Piping Centre in Glasgow last night marked what is, strictly speaking, 12 years since the centre opened its doors in a former Free kirk in McPhater Street, Cowcaddens. It is, however, a decade, explains its director, Roddy MacLeod MBE, since the centre was formally opened by its patron, Prince Charles.
Apart from last night’s celebration – accompanied, naturally, by top-level piping, the centre is marking its anniversary with a competition for a newly composed 6/8-time pipe march, entries for which have to be in by 1 July (for details see
www.pipingcentre.co.uk). The winning march will be aired by one of the centre’s pet projects, the flourishing National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland, during Glasgow’s Piping Live! festival in August.
The competition, the popularity of Piping Live! and the fact that the centre finds itself teaching almost to capacity, as well as running summer schools in America, Italy and Germany, all reflect the vigour of a piping scene that’s expanding on a global scale, agrees MacLeod.
Newly returned from taking second place in the Dr Dan Reid Memorial Piping Competition in San Francisco, MacLeod points to the response to two different approaches to pipes – the chart success that greeted last November’s album by the Royal Scottish Dragoon Guards, Spirit of the Glen and the enthusiastic reception regularly granted to the Red Hot Chilli Pipers, whose rocked-up approach made them surprise winners of the BBC’s When Will I Be Famous and wowed American Celtophiles during New York’s Tartan Week.
“There are more pipers coming here to competitions from all over the world,” says MacLeod, who adds that the centre’s online shop does a roaring international trade. “I’m amazed at just where we send bagpipe accessories to.”
The centre – established under the financial patronage of distillers Sir Brian Ivory, Sandy Grant Gordon and Lady Oona Ivory, with further funding from the European Regional Development Fund – has played a significant role in the burgeoning of the “noble instrument”. By MacLeod’s estimation, it teaches 900 students a month, ranging from novices to the 20 students on the BA (Scottish music – piping) degree course run in conjunction with the RSAMD.
Meantime, the National Youth Pipe Band goes from strength to strength, drawing on talented players from across the country, and the centre’s part in organising Piping Live! – a week of events running up to the World Pipe Band Championships in August – has given exposure to piping in its broadest sense, from the top highland competition players to the indigenous instruments of piping cultures as far apart as Ireland and Bulgaria.
While the public may latch on to jigs’n’reels, the centre pays essential attention to pibroch, the magisterial “classical” music of the Highland pipe – indeed its stained glass windows illustrate ancient pibroch themes.
On the other hand, some of its tutors are as well known on the folk scene as they are in mainstream piping, for example Simon McKerrell, who could be heard earlier this month playing in a new composition, Clydean Coronaries, by the Glasgow-based American Steve Forman, alongside a brass ensemble and three percussionists.
Interesting times, then? “I think people are beginning to understand that pipes can take their place in a contemporary setting,” MacLeod observes. “They’re aware of the traditional pipe band, but they’re also becoming aware of the growing versatility of the bagpipe.”
The full article contains 589 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
