ANNOUNCING OUR JUDGES FOR THE 2020 BALMORAL CLASSIC ONLINE
US Junior Solo Piping & Drumming Championships to be held November 14
This year’s Balmoral Classic, scheduled for Nov. 14, go online, which opens it to international competitors. Pipers and drummers, age 21 and under, may compete by submitting a video performance. Piping judges are: Robert Wallace (Scotland), Jim McGillivray (Canada) and Scot Walker (USA). Drumming Judges are: Jim Kilpatrick (Scotland), Steven Shedden (Australia), and Gordon Bell (USA).
Robert Wallace (Scotland) has won the Highland Society of London Gold Medal at Oban (1985) and at Inverness (1995), the Bratach Gorm, the Dunvegan Medal and Clasp and many other prestigious awards. He is the current President of the Piobaireachd Society of Scotland.
Jim McGillivray (Canada) was awarded the Gold Medal at Inverness (1985), the Clasp at Inverness (1986), the Gold Medal at Oban (1991), the March/Strathspey & Reel at the Glenfiddich Championship (1986), and the Strathspey & Reel at Oban in the same year.
Scot Walker (U.S.) was rated #1 Overall Professional Piping Competitor for seven years running by the EUSPBA. He’s won 1st at nearly all the major North American Solo Championships, and in Scotland at games in Dornoch, Strathpeffer, Lonach and Cowel.
Jim Kilpatrick (Scotland) has won the drumming title at The World Pipe Band Championships 19 times, 15 as lead drummer, and has won the World Solo Drumming Championship 16 times. In 1991, his band Shotts and Dykehead won the drumming title in all five major championships, the only time this has occurred.
Steven Shedden (Australia) won his 1st championship drumming prize with Boghall & Bathgate Pipe Band (2007). While he was with Shotts & Dykehead, the band won drumming at the 2011 Worlds. Steven is Australian Solo Drumming Champion, having held this title since 2017.
Gordon Bell (U.S) was named EUSPBA Overall Champion each year from 1979 to 1987. His band and corps, Parlin & District, dominated the pipe band scene in the 1980s in the EUSPBA, winning the North American Championship in Grade 2, placing them in Grade 1.
All contestants’ videos for the Balmoral Classic will be aired on YouTube between 9:00am and 5:00pm on Saturday, Nov. 14th, followed by an awards ceremony. A virtual concert with Alasdair Fraser on Scottish fiddle will begin at 7:30pm. During the concert’s intermission, the winning performance in the pipers’ MSR, and the drummers’ Hornpipe and Jig, will be featured.
The Saturday competition will be free to the public, and a $20 donation is requested for the concert. Arthur McAra will emcee the competition and concert, and the concert will be followed by a Q & A answer period with Alasdair Fraser.
On the day after the competition, Sunday, Nov. 15, Balmoral piping judge, Robert Wallace, will teach an online piobaireachd workshop for pipers.