Pipers take on the world
Pictou woman part of championship P.E.I. team in Glasgow, Scotland competition
Lorna MacIsaac said her pipes were singing Sunday in Glasgow, Scotland.
The Pictou resident was competing in the World Championships with the College of Piping as one of 60 bands going for first place in the Grade 4 band class.
“It was like we all had good plays,” said MacIsaac after returning to her Pictou home Monday. “We are a very small band with the minimum requirement of pipers. If one of us gets sick or hurt we will be disqualified.”
MacIsaac said the college band arrived in Glasgow on Thursday, August 3, and competed in its first weekend event in North Berwick on Saturday, Aug. 5, where it placed third. On the following Sunday, it placed first in another competition in another community just 40 minutes outside of Glasgow.
These competitions were considered warm-ups to the Worlds on Aug. 12 and 13 in Glasgow so the band spent the week leading up to the big event practising and enjoying the some downtime.
Last Saturday, MacIsaac put on her game face and was ready to complete alongside 59 other bands from all over the world. P.E.I came out on top against performers from all over Canada, the U.S, Ireland, France, England, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, Austria, Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark, Argentina and, of course, Scotland, to name a few.
In order to make it to the finals, the college band had to compete against 20 other Grade 4 bands in a qualifying round. The band is marked individually on piping, drumming and ensemble with the total score calculated in the end for ranking.
She said after a few hours of waiting for the other bands to finish, it was announced that the College of Piping would be going to finals on Sunday after placing fifth in the qualifier.
“We knew we didn’t have as good of a play as we wanted,” she said about their qualifying performance. “We went back and got word from our pipe major Kylie MacHattie that we did the hard part (by qualifying) now we can go in and enjoy the play.”
MacIsaac said pipe band competitions are similar to any other team preparing for a big game. Bands listen to their leaders, practise to improve and enter the ring in the finals ready to give their best.
“We were having really good plays before we went into (the finals). You get warmed up and go into a tuning circle and after the final tuning circle you go out and march in to play. We felt good about it. We didn’t know how good we did it, but we did our best.”
MacIsaac joined the college band two years ago, but her love of piping goes back to her teenage years when she joined the Heatherbells Pipes and Drums 36 years ago.
She put the pipes down after leaving the Heatherbells at age 18 and focused on raising a family, however, when her own daughter was 12 years old, she returned as a chanter instructor and remained in the teaching position with the Heatherbells for 20 years.
MacIsaac returned to full band ensemble later in life, playing with Fraser Holmes Memorial Pipe Band and the Old Scotia.
Her desire to compete was strong so she joined a Grade 3 pipe band in Antigonish that eventually joined with the Old Scotia, participating until 2015.
After that, the College of Piping called and asked if she was interested in joining their Grade 4 band, which it admits is small with only seven pipers, four drummers, three tenor drummers and a bass player, and young in age.
MacIsaac credits the knowledge of the instructors, James and Kylie MacHattie, for bringing the band its success. She travels to Prince Edward Island once a month to practise with them and the rest of the time she sits on lessons by conversing with her instructors and fellow band members through Skype on the computer.”
She noted that three other Pictou County natives, Amy MacKenzie, Trevor Kellock and Ian MacIsaac, who pipe and drum with the College of Piping’s Grade 2 band, also deserve credit for their 10th place finish in the Worlds out of 28 bands.
MacIsaac said the trip to the championships was an experience of a lifetime so she made the best of the opportunity.
“I said, ‘This is a job that I am going to go do.’
“I have shed a few tears since the win, but I looked at it like I had a job to do. It wasn’t so much of a task, but I knew I could represent the band the best I could. It was a wonderful week.”