Posing with the Grade 4 Trophy at the BC Highland Games.
Northwest Junior Pipe Band Grade 4 won best drum corps and first place of seven bands at the British Columbia Highland Games on Saturday June 28th, 2008. 2008 marks only the third season of competing at this level after receiving a promotion from Grade 5 in 2005, and this is the first first place victory in a BC Pipers’ Association sanctioned Highland Games.
The band Saturday consisted of 8 side drummers, 3 tenor drummers, a bass drummer, and 10 bagpipers. The age range is from 9 to 18, and includes the adult band director Kevin Auld.
The Northwest Junior Pipe Band – Grade 4 members will be the first youth band from Washington State to ever compete in the World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow, Scotland in August, and only the second youth band from Washington to travel to Scotland for any competition since 1969. The band is growing to a crescendo of membership and talented bagpipers and drummers 18 and younger.
Seven pipe bands competed, three focused on youth pipers and drummers, and four bands either focused on adults or largely or with a majority of adult members. Two Canadian youth pipe bands; Robert Malcom Memorial, and White Spot Pipe Band Grade 4 joined the Keith Highlanders from Bellevue, the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada- a Canadian military pipe band founded in 1910, the Kamloops Pipe Band Society from British Columbia, and the Bellingham Pipe Band from Washington. During bagpipe band competitions, four judges critique piping, drumming, and ensemble, or how well the pipes and drums perform and sound together.
In the Northwest (British Columbia, Washington and Oregon) pipe band competitions are based on skill rather than age. Youth bands compete against adult bands, and are judged by the top pipers and drummers in the world who provide valuable feedback to the bands to help them improve their skills. Northwest Junior Pipe Bands; Grade 4 and 5 travelled north to Coquitlam British Columbia, into the heart of piping and drumming in the Northwest, where the largest numbers of talented pipers and drummers hone their skills, supported by a long tradition and celebration of Scottish culture and pipe band competitions. Northwest Junior Pipe Band Grade 4 won first place overall and received recognition for fielding the “Best Drum Corps” at the British Columbia Highland Games on Saturday June 28th, a major milestone for the Seattle – area youth pipe band founded in 1995.
Northwest Junior Pipe Band youth were enthusiastic about their performance on Saturday, but are maintaining laser like focus on their ultimate goal of performing well during their August trip to Scotland. The band will compete in 4 competitions throughout their two week stay, but the World Pipe Band Championships is the biggest challenge for any bagpipe band, attracting the most talented bagpipe bands in the World, who travel to Scotland every year for this event.
Band Director Kevin Auld is a full time performer and instructor of the Great Highland Bagpipe, and begain working with the band in 2002. After Saturday’s performance Kevin told the band “Regardless of the outcome, you performed your best today, and that’s what makes me proud of our performance.” Mid Section Director Marcie MacRae was one of the founding instructors with the band, and was thrilled with the performance. Drumming Director Steve Roy leads a large snare drum corps of 8 members, who performed in near-perfect synchronization Saturday. The youngest snare drummer in the Grade 4 band is 9, and the oldest is 16. Steve is a full time percussionist and instructor who has been volunteering with Northwest Junior Pipe Band for four years. Other volunteer instructors include Rick Rich, working with our Grade 5 snare drummers, and Ben Little, who graduated from the Northwest Junior Pipe Band in 2007 and has been working with the Grade 5 competition band as leading the band as Pipe Major at Highland Games competitions this year. Former band members often return to help teach the members of Northwest Junior Pipe Band.
The next competition for the band is in Mount Vernon at the Skagit Valley Highland Games on July 12th and 13th. The band’s full schedule is available on www.nwjpb.org/schedule.
Northwest Junior Pipe Band has been rapidly growing and steadily improving over the past few years since gaining a promition to Grade 4 from the beginning Grade 5 class. With over 50 members and the second season fielding two pipe bands, The first competition of 2008 started out strong for the band. This is a historic year for what was once a struggling youth pipe band from Washington, and band members felt a lot of pride in their musicianship and teamwork when they completed the first event of the year with the highest ever combined ranking of bands in our history.
Grade 4 competed in a class of 5 bands, three youth and two combined adult / youth organizations, placing 2nd overall, with first and second rankings from the two piping judges, 2nd in drumming and 3rd in ensemble. Watch the video of the best performance in the band’s history:
The brand new Grade 5 band for 2008 performed incredibly well placing first of three youth bands. The majority of them have been playing for less than one year, and one member just started on pipes in April after learning the music on the practice chanter. This is a truly remarkable feat. The band gained first place rankings from three judges and “Best Drum Corps”, continuing the string of 1st place finishes that an almost completely different beginning band won last year before most of that band worked hard to gain the promotion to our Grade 4 band. See the video here:
NWJPB at the Bellingham Highland Games in Ferndale, WA
