Instructors

Glenn Brown

Glenn is a native of Milton, Ontario, Canada. He began playing at the age of 9 and piping is in his blood, as he was originally taught by his mother Gail Brown, who he still lists as one of his favorite pipers. One of Glenn's biggest role models in piping is Willie McCallum whom he has been taking lessons with since 2001. Some prizes of note in Piobaireachd are: the Canadian Gold Medal; the Dunvegan Medal; and the Northern Meting Gold Medal. In Light Music, Glenn has won the Senior Piobaireachd at the Argyllshire Gathering and the A grade MSR at London. IN 2017, Glenn won the Senior Piobaireacd at the Argyllshire Gathering, Oban. 2018 saw Glenn win the Captain John MacLellan Memorial Medal and The Bratach Gorm in London. 2019 was another fairly strong year for Glenn, winning the DOnald MacDonald Cuaich and the Piobaireachd at the Glenfiddich Championship.

Stuart Liddell

Originally from Inveraray, he started piping at the age of nine and he was originally taught by his grandfather, the late Pipe Major Ronald McCallum M.B.E. He has also had tuition from Jim Henderson and Hugh McCallum.

For seven years he was a member of the Scottish Power Pipe Band thereafter joining the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band from Vancouver, Canada, with whom he played for eleven years.

Stuart is one of the world's most existing pipers and is noted for his excellent solo perforamnces and recordings at numerous Simon Fraser University Pipe Band concerts.

In 2008 Stuart Liddell and Steven McWhirter joined forces to run the Inveraray & District Pipe Band, which placed 2nd in Grade 1 at the 2016 World Pipe Band Championships. In 2017, Inveraray & District Pipe Band was crowned World Pipe Champions! In 2018, the band took 2nd place at the World Pipe Band Championships. The band also just won the 2019 World Pipe Band Championships!

A piano tuner by trade, he is also piping instructor at Mid Argyll Primary and Lochgilphead High Schools.

Stuart's pipe band achievements are too many to list.

Cameron MacDougall

Cameron, who hails from the Highlands of Scotland, studied under some of the country’s most eminent pipers, graduating with a music degree from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. He is a silver medalist and plays in the Former Winners MSR at the Argyllshire Gathering, after winning the A grade in 2022. Cameron’s recent wins include the Medley at the Metro cup, MSR at the USPF contest and the Lochaber axe. Cameron recently moved to New Jersey, USA and plays with the Ulster Scottish pipe band and st Columcille pipe band.

Robyn McKay

Robyn McKay is a piper and whistle player from Renfrewshire, Scotland with a rich background in traditional and contemporary Celtic music. She is a graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s Scottish Music (Piping) program and been a competing member of St. Laurence O’Toole Pipe Band for the last 14 years.

Robyn’s influences span both solo piping traditions and modern folk styles, having studied under renowned pipers Iain MacFadyen and Finlay MacDonald. Her musical journey has taken her from Plockton Music School to Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, where she studied folklore and ethnomusicology, and even across to Perth, WA where she worked and played with the Western Australia Police Pipe Band.

She has performed at major festivals including Celtic Colours (Canada), Ortigueira (Galicia), and the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo (Sydney). She has also contributed to box-office film scores such as DUNE (Hans Zimmer) Part 1 & 2, and Artemis Fowl (Patrick Doyle).
Other artists she has collaborated with include; Julie Fowlis, Eddi Reader, Phil Cunningham MBE, and The Script.

Derek Midgley

Derek hails from Tinton Falls, New Jersey and began piping at the age of 12. His first tutor was George Bell, formerly of Parlin, NJ who was instrumental in Derek’s rise through the amateur ranks in the US. After his passing, Derek is fortunate to receive instruction from Roddy MacLeod, MBE.

Derek’s notable solo prizes include the Silver Medal and B Marches at the Northern Meeting, and multiple prizes in the Highland Society of London’s Gold Medal at both Oban and Inverness including a prize in 2022. He has won the the A Grade MSR, Hornpipe/Jig, and Piobaireachd at the Scottish Piping Society of London Competition, the Dunvegan Medal and Open Marches at Skye, and the Lochaber Axe for Senior Piobaireachd at Fort William. In Canada, Derek was the third person ever to win the “Double Gold” Gold Medal and Bar to the Gold Medal of Canada on the same day. More recently in the USA, he has won the Metro Cup Piobaireachd, the United States Piping Foundation Piobaireachd three times, and the USPF Overall for the first time in 2022. Finally, Derek won both light music events at the Royal Highland Gathering at Braemar in September of this year.

Derek also has many years of domestic and international Grade 1 Pipe Band experience, having played with the City of Washington Pipe Band, Toronto Police Pipe Band, and the Scottish Power Pipe Band.

Derek became a piping adjudicator for the Eastern United States Pipe Band Association in 2016 and a member of the EUSPBA Music Board in 2017. He is also the current Metro Branch Chairman. In 2020, Derek was elected President of the Competing Pipers Association in Glasgow, Scotland and works to coordinate solo professional piping in Scotland and abroad.

Derek Cooper

Derek is a member of the Grade 1 Inveraray & District Pipe Band from Scotland. He is also the drumming instructor and lead drummer for Ulster Scottish Pipe Band. During his time with SFU, Derek won the Grade 1 World Pipe Band Championships as well as the best drum corps prize twice. Derek's vast solo drumming accomplishments include winning the North American Gold Medal Snare Drumming Championship at Winter Storm in Kansas City 4 times, and being the only American to ever make the finals at the World Drumming Championships. In 2017, Inveraray & District was crowned World Champions! In 2018, the band took 2nd place at the World Pipe Band Championships. The band also just won the 2019 World Pipe Band Championships!

Stephen Creighton

Stephen Creighton is the lead drummer of the current World MSR drumming champions St Laurence O’Toole pipe band from Dublin,Ireland.

His honours to date as a solo drummer include 1989 World Junior Champion, 26 World Solo finals, 5 Senior all Ireland drumming Championships and 3 Ulster Senior Championships.

With his corps, Stephen was crowned the 2006, 2010, 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019 World Grade 1 Drumming prize winners.

Currently Stephen has 23 major titles across European, Scottish and British titles.

On a local level his drum corps has 13 grade 1 All Ireland drumming titles and counting.

Stephen is married to Amanda and has four children; Stephen Junior, Keith, Glen and Hannah.

Reid Maxwell

J. Reid Maxwell is certainly one of today's most decorated drummers. When the SFU Pipe Band captured the Worlds in 1995, Reid became the first person in history to lead the drum corps of two different bands to be named World Pipe Band Champions (his other victory being in 1987 with Toronto's 78th Fraser Highlanders, also the 1987 World Drum Corps Champions). And all this was preceded by two World Pipe Band Championships and four World Drum Corps Championships as a member of Scotland's Dysart & Dundonald Pipe Band.

With the band's capture of the 2008 and 2009 World Pipe Band Championship and World Drum Corps Championships, Reid obtained his 18th World Championship title, an amazing feat by any standard. Reid's ability to produce exceptional drum corps and his dedication to the instruction of young drummers is held in high regard worldwide. In 2015, Reid was awarded the BC Community Achievement Award for services to pipe band drumming in British Columbia.

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Steven McWhirter

Steven began drumming in 1993 at the age of 10. He played with Cullybackey Pipe Band from 1994 until 2001. Between the years of 2002 to 2008 he traveled from his home in Northern Ireland to compete, teach, and perform with the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band in Vancouver, Canada. In 2008 Steven and world-renowned piper Stuart Liddell joined forces to run the Inveraray & District Pipe Band, which placed 2nd in Grade 1 at the 2016 World Pipe Band Championships. In addition to a huge list of solo drumming accomplishments, Steven is a 8-time World Solo Drumming Champion, having won first in 2006 then consecutively from 2011 through 2017.

Jordan Baille

Born in Co. Down in Northern Ireland and now residing in Stirlingshire, Scotland, Jordan started tenor drumming at the age of 10 and by the age of 13 Jordan was playing in the Grade 1 competition circuit. Jordan has enjoyed successes in over 30 RSPBA Major Championships, five of which, World Championships including the World Drumming Title.
As a solo player Jordan has competed and won many events including the Gold Medal competition at Winter Storm and World Solo Tenor Drumming championship. Day to day Jordan is a Bass and Tenor drumming instructor at both George Watsons College, Edinburgh and Strathallan School, Perth, and is a recognised PDQB assessor. Today Jordan continues to play at the highest level with Inveraray and District Pipe Band based in Scotland.

Danielle Cooper

Danielle started playing for Tullylagan Pipe Band twelve years ago, at eight years old, learning the tenor drum. Throughout the years at Tullylagan, succeeding from Grade 4B to grade 3A, she won major titles at home and away such as the Ulster, All Ireland, Scottish, and European Championships, including Champion of Champions at home and Supreme Champion of Champions in Scotland both as a band and drum corps. In 2015, she joined Inveraray & District Pipe Band, winning British and Scottish titles including their respective drumming prizes, and in 2017 the band became World Champions. As well as playing in the band, Danielle has claimed the Ulster and All-Ireland solo tenor drumming titles. Furthermore, in 2015 she placed second in the International Tenor Drumming Solos. Danielle also teaches in schools throughout the Mid-Ulster area in Northern Ireland and is a tutor for the Ulster Scots Pipe Band (a juvenile band) who perform on many different stages throughout the world.....

Andrew Elliott

Andrew is from Toronto, Ontario, Canada and joined Field Marshall Montgomery Pipe Band as lead tenor drummer in 2013. He joined his first Grade 1 band at age 13, and has won every major prize both in band and solo competitions in Ontario. Along with being the Canadian, United States, and North American Champion, Andrew is also a 4-time MHAF Gold Medal winner, in both bass and tenor drumming. Andrew is the owner of Ace Percussion, the only company to offer fully-customizable tenor drum mallets. In 2018, Field Marshall Montgomery Pipe Band was crowned World Champions!

Fergus Bryce

Fergus Bryce is the bass drummer of Inveraray and District Pipe Band. Having grown up in a small town 20 miles north of Inverness, Fergus began his pipe band career with Ross and Cromarty Pipes and Drums School in 2015.

On his 17th birthday, Fergus joined Glasgow Police Pipe Band and enjoyed both the 2017 and 2018 seasons there before joining Inverarayin August 2018. In his 6 years at Inveraray, Fergus has enjoyed collecting multiple RSPBA major championship wins. including the Worlds in 2019. However, Fergus values the music over all and is still loving every minute of playing with the band that he dreamed of when he first started.

Outside of pipe bands, you will find Fergus sat behind his first instrument, the drum kit.

Rebecca Hamilton

Rebecca Hamilton, from Northern Ireland, began her Drum Majoring career at just nine years old and has accumulated eight years of competitive experience with Tullylagan Pipe Band. She is the 2017 British Champion and secured a 4th place finish at the World Championships, with notable results at the All Ireland, Scottish and Uk Championships, with consistencies throughout her competitions at home. Rebecca’s international performance expands to Belfast and Londonderry Tattoos and San Fransisco. Drawing from her background in performance and competition she is ready to support the development of Drum Majors at all levels.