A Grade 1 pipe band that includes seven musicians from the Tri-Cities is in Scotland to compete at Glasgow Green this weekend.
The six-time champion band from Simon Fraser University — with local residents Reid Maxwell as lead drummer and fellow drummers Mackenzie Webster, Kyle Wallis, Gavin McCrae and Duncan Millar and pipers Dani Millar and Alastair Lee — hopes to capture the international title against 20 other Grade 1 ensembles, four of which also hail from Canada.
Managed by Coquitlam’s Rob MacNeil, the 45-member pipe band has a fine roster of professionals at its fingertips: Its newest members are Zachary Read, an opera singer who spent five years piping with the 78th Fraser Highlanders, and Allison Anderson, a 16-year-old bass drummer from Vernon.
As well, pipe major Alan Bevan is a lawyer, piper Derek Milloy is a Burnaby high school teacher and pipe sergeant Jack Lee is among the world’s best solo pipers and bag makers.
At last year’s World Pipe Band Championship, SFU placed fifth overall; however, this year it has scored success on the circuit and is confident it can win high points in Glasgow to knock the current champions, Scottish band Shotts and Dykehead, from the top (the four years previous were clinched by Field Marshal Montgomery from Northern Ireland).
According to the BC Pipers’ Association website, SFU took the highest standing this season for a Grade 1 band with 536 points received at the BCPA annual gathering as well as the Victoria, Bellingham, BC Highland (Coquitlam), Kamloops and Pacific Northwest games. At the latter event, in Enumclaw, Washington State, on July 30 and 31, the SFU band earned first overall for Medley and for the March, Strathspey & Reel.
But not competing at the 2016 worlds will be Grade 1 pipe band Dowco Triumph Street Pipe Band of Port Coquitlam, which last year placed 10th overall (a request for comment from pipe major and PoCo resident David Hilder was not immediately returned). In June, Dowco — with new lead drummer Gary Corkin — competed at the UK Championships held in Stormont Estate in Belfast. And next year, it will play at the pre-season concert in Aberdeen, Scotland and will be at the British Championships in Paisley as well as the worlds in Glasgow.
The worlds draw more than 200 bands with some 8,000 pipers and drummers. “The level of competition has seen more and more bands come to the fore to compete for the ultimate prize in pipe band music and we can expect a similarly hard fought contest this year,” said Ian Embelton, chief executive of the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association, in a news release.
Meanwhile, the SFU pipe band has two more public events when it returns: The SFU convocation ceremony in October and the Port Moody Remembrance Day ceremonies on Nov. 11.
• The World Pipe Band Championships are Aug. 12 and 13 at Glasgow Green. Visit the worlds.co.uk. The event will be live streamed at: bbc.in/2auleEN.
[email protected]
@jwarrenTC
