Ten of the best pipers to compete at championship

Ten of the world’s greatest solo pipers have been invited to compete in this year’s Glenfiddich Piping Championship.

The renowned competition returns to Blair Castle in Highland Perthshire on Saturday October 30.

This year’s competitors are defending champion Stuart Liddell, Dollar’s Callum Beaumont, British Columbia piper Jack Lee, five-time champion Roderick Macleod MBE, William McCallum of Bearsden, 2019 title holder Finlay Johnston, The Silver Chanter 2021 winner Angus MacColl, Edinburgh’s Iain Speirs, Glasgow-based Canadian piper Glenn Brown and Connor Sinclair of Crieff.

The participants were selected from the two qualifying events that took place, with Stuart Liddell as the 2020 champion and Callum Beaumont as the overall winner of the Piping Live! Masters Competition.

The other competitors were chosen based on previous achievements at the Glenfiddich Piping Championship and will travel to Perthshire this October for the annual meet.

Musicians will play in both the Piobaireachd and March, Strathspey and Reel disciplines, with prizes awarded for each discipline, as well as an overall Championship winner.

Stuart Liddell was overall winner in 2020 (Photo: Derek Maxwell Photography)

The prestigious 48th annual event will welcome live audiences to the Perthshire venue’s Victorian ballroom whilst also being livestreamed, allowing piping fans at home and around the world to experience the impressive sights and sounds of The Glenfiddich.

The competition will be followed by the celebratory Pipers’ Ceilidh at the Atholl Palace Hotel in Pitlochry, renowned for topping off the Glenfiddich experience for competitors and fans alike.

The Championship will get underway at 10am on Saturday 30 October and with limited availability on the door at Blair Castle, people are encouraged to buy a ticket in advance for the in-person show, priced at £15 per person or £12 for a concession.

A limited number of tickets for the ceilidh, priced at £60 per person, are also available for purchase along with competition tickets. The online show is priced at £15 and will be available to view for one week after it is first streamed.

As a thank you to their local and international supporters, organisers will enter everyone who books a ticket in advance for the competition, both in-person or online, into a special prize draw. Ticket holders will have the chance to win a set of bagpipes, Piping Live! 2022 festival passes and a host of other exciting goodies.

Blair Castle will host the competition (Photo: Nick Mailer)

The Glenfiddich Piping Championship was established in 1974 to inspire the world’s finest exponents of Ceòl Mòr or Piobaireachd (the great music) and Ceòl Beag or light music (the little music). Run by The National Piping Centre, the world centre for excellence in bagpipe music, and funded through the William Grant Foundation, the event is held annually at Blair Castle in Blair Atholl, Perthshire.

The National Piping Centre’s director of piping, Finlay MacDonald, said: ‘It’s wonderful to be able to bring The Glenfiddich Piping Championship back to a live audience this year. Blair Castle always makes for a magnificent venue for this prestigious event and the 48th edition will mark a welcome return to live competition, whilst also giving people at home and abroad the chance to tune in online. In-person tickets are limited so we would encourage all those keen to be at Blair Castle to get their tickets as soon as possible.’

The judges for the day are John Wilson, Dr Jack Taylor, Cpt Stuart Samson (Retd) for the Piobaireachd section and Iain MacFadyen, William Morrison and Ian Duncan will judge the March, Strathspey and Reel. Bob Worrall is Fear an Tighe for the day.

Tickets for the Glenfiddich Piping Championship 2021 are on sale now at www.thepipingcentre.co.uk/glenfiddich.

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