Balmoral is proud to announce that Jim Kilpatrick MBE will be joining us as an instructor for the launch of our all-new drumming program, Summer 2021.
Jim Kilpatrick MBE started playing drums at the age of 10. His progress was so rapid that within two years he was competing at the highest level in Grade 1 competition.
At the age of 15, he joined Shotts & Dyjkehead Caledonia Pipe Band, where he won his first World Drum Corps and World Pipe Band Championships – the first of Jim’s record nineteen World Drum Corps Championships. Fifteen of these titles have been won as a leading drummer. This also includes winning the World Drum Corps Championship for a record breaking eleven years in a row between 1988 and 1998.
Jim’s move into the solo drumming arena proved to be equally successful. He has smashed every record in the books by winning the RSPBA World Solo Drumming Championships no less then sixteen times. He is also the current holder of the Champion of Champions title, a title he has won three times.
Another record Jim holds is that of being the only leading drummer ever to win the ‘Grand Slam’, which consists of winning all five major drum corps championships in one season in 1991. This run coincided with him actually winning 10 major drumming championships in a row over three seasons between 1990 and 1992.
Honors
Jim’s contribution to the music industry has achieved considerable recognition. He has received the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ for drumming from the UK & Ireland Chapter of the Percussive Arts Society in London.
In 2004, Jim was awarded the MBE (Member of the British Empire) for his services to music by Her Majesty The Queen in her birthday honours list – a significant milestone in the career of any musician, but completely unique to Jim in the world of pipe band snare drumming. Jim received his honour from The Queen at an investiture ceremony held in Buckingham Palace that summer.
Jim was inducted into the Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame in 2009, making him the first pipe band drummer to receive such recognition from within the Scottish traditional music industry.
These achievements rank Jim Kilpatrick MBE as one of the top percussionists in the world today in addition to being regarded as the world’s greatest exponent of the pipe band snare drum.