The Tenth Annual
P/M. Angus Macdonald
Western Regional Championship


Competitor Information

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Registration Form

Our Judge

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Bydand Forever

The Gordon Highlanders

 

Saturday 1 November 2008
Canyon Crest Country Club
Riverside, California
10:00am - 3:00pm

Spectators - $10 (students - $5)

Pipe Major Angus Macdonald was perhaps one of the most influential pipers in the past 30 years.  He served with the 1st Battalion, Scots Guards, rising through the ranks and being appointed Pipe Major.  In his 'retirement' years, he was perhaps more occupied than in his years with the army!  He spent a considerable amount of time traveling the world performing and teaching.  He was particularly loved in San Diego, CA, where he frequently visited.  Perhaps one of the most telling stories about the respect he commanded occurred at the San Diego Scottish Highland Games in the very early 1990s.  For those who have not attended a full Games, the various pipers and drummers are constantly practicing throughout the day; the sound of many pipers playing different tunes is never far away.  As a judge for the day's solo piping events, his duties were finished in the late afternoon and so he decided to get his pipes out for a bit.  He struck up, stepped under the trees in the piping area and began to play... all of the other pipers stopped and only Big Angus' music reverberated through the hills.  Sadly, he was found to have very serious cancer in 1997, and he passed away in June 1999.  This piping competition strives, like P/M. Macdonald himself did, to encourage pipers in the US to achieve the same levels of excellence as is found elsewhere.

Congratulations to our 2008 Winners!!

Professional Grade I
Seumas Coyne Erik Leiken

Competitor Information

  1. The Macdonald Championship is open to any professional or amateur Grade I piper.
  2. All competitors will be members of their appropriate solo competitors association.  This competition is held in accordance with the rules of the Western United States Pipe Band Association and is sanctioned by that organisation.
  3. Entry fee for professional players is $30.00, and for Grade I is $20.00.
  4. The professional and Grade I overall winners will qualify to compete at the US Piping Foundation Championship, which will be held on the last Saturday of June, 2009.
  5. Tune requirement:  Professionals will submit four each of piobaireachd, march, strathspey and reel.  Grade I will submit three piobaireachd and two each of march, strathspey and reel.

Prizes

  • Professional (each event): 1st - $250; 2nd - $150; 3rd - $100
  • Professional (Overall winner): $100, plus airfare to the US Piping Foundation Championship.
     
  • Grade I (each event): Awards for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places
  • Grade I (Overall winner): Perpetual plaque and a travel scholarship to participate in the USPF Grade I competition.

About Our Judge

 We are very pleased to announce Ian Whitelaw will be judging this year's Macdonald championship. 

Ian is an accomplished competitor receiving many prizes and medals throughout the U.S. and Canada. In addition to demonstrating his talents as a class player in Light Music, winning several competitions, Ian has consistently won in Piobaireachd in the course of his career. Some highlights for competition in this music for Ian was receiving the top prize at the Pleasanton Highland Games, the Purgavie Horn, in September of 2003 and placing second overall in the very prestigious GS McLennan Invitational Piping Competition held in San Diego, California with second in both the piobaireachd and MSR events.  Ian traveled to Scotland to compete in the Gold Medal Competitions held in Oban and Inverness. He was selected from a list of nearly 100 competitors to join a group of 30 contestants for the very prestigious prize for classical music, the Highland Society of London’s Gold Medal. In 2005, Ian won the prize for the most musical performance in the United States Prize Pipe Competition held in Michigan. Ian won the Angus MacDonald Piping Competition held at the Sheraton Towers Hotel in San Diego, California in October of 2005 and again in 2006. Ian won the United States Gold Medal for Piobaireachd held in Kansas City, Missouri in 2006 and in 2007 won The United States Prize Pipe, held in Traverse City, Michigan as well as the Angus MacDonald Memorial Piping Competition.

Ian has released his own Recording CD entitled "Angels From Atlantis"— featuring an original composition—a project that was supported and encouraged by the Durfee Foundation located in Los Angeles, California and Ian is a "Durfee Fellow, having received a two year grant to assist students with their own piping studies.  He also produced a CD that is devoted to relaxation – it is called "The Lady" and is based upon the ancient music of Scotland called "piobaireachd" – the classical music of the great highland bagpipe.  Ian is now a visiting assistant professor at the University of California at Riverside and is the director of music for the UCR Pipe Band and is also the director of the music degree program for bagpipes there.  This is a new and unique position being offered by the University and expect exciting news from there in the very near future.

For more information and registration materials, please contact:
Robbie McKnight – (619) 659-9221
22201 Mariah Way
Alpine, CA 91901-3444
for e-mail, just click the 'contact us' link on the menu to the left
 

2007 Results: Piobaireachd

  First Place Second Place Third Place
Professional Ian Whitelaw John Partanen  
Grade One Erik Leiken Justin Celek Darell Cavillo

2007 Results: March/Strathspey/Reel

  First Place Second Place Third Place
Professional Ian Whitelaw John Partanen  
Grade One Erik Leiken Paul Langan Justin Celek

 

Thanks very much to Robbie McKnight for his very dedicated work on getting this competition organized and running.  Another exceptional year!!

This page was last updated on Sunday, 14 December 2008