Budding pipers vie for top title in Eilidh's memory
Pupils from across the Highlands and islands will gather at the Scottish Schools Pipe Band Championship in Ayrshire next month, competing for an award in memory of the Manchester bombing victim Eilidh MacLeod.
The contest, one of the country’s biggest piping and drumming events, was launched in 2013, as part of a nationwide drive to revive dwindling access to the instruments across schools.
Entries are for the competition’s coveted Eilidh MacLeod Endeavour Award, honouring the young Manchester Arena attack victim from Barra, who would have turned 18 in February.
Featuring 81 performances across the day, the event will be hosted by East Ayrshire Council and see pipe bands, open quartets and freestyle ensembles go head-to-head at the William McIlvanney Campus in Kilmarnock on Sunday March 12. Judges will adjudicate eight categories, ranging from debut to novice juvenile.
Among the 121 schools participating, there are four from Argyll and Bute, Lochgilphead Joint Campus, Tobermory High School, Campbeltown and Dunoon Grammar Schools, plus Castlebay Community School, Sgoil Lionacleit Pipe Band, Sir E Scott School, and The Nicolson Institute from Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar, as well as Kyle Primary School, Plockton High School, Portree Gaelic Primary School, Portree High School, and Portree Primary School.
Alexandra Duncan, chief executive of the Scottish Schools
Pipe Band Championship, said: “The championships are a huge day in the piping calendar and after a long break due to the pandemic, we are sure it will be a very special return.
“Playing in pipe bands can improve so much more than just musical skills for young people and the championships next month are a major celebration of that."
The championship is independently organised by the Scottish Schools Pipes and Drums Trust (SSPDT). It carries the support of the Royal Scottish Pipe Band
Association, but is RSPBA competition.
SSPDT believes that every pupil should have the chance to learn the pipes and drums on the same basis as other school instrument tuition.
The national charity was formed with the belief that pipe bands are much more than a musical pastime; they develop life and employability skills and attributes such as teamwork, shared and individual achievement, resilience and perseverance, self-confidence, camaraderie and a sense of discipline and dress. not
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