Events and Announcements

2023 P/M Angus MacDonald Invitational Piping Competition

The P/M Angus MacDonald Invitational Piping Competition was held on October 14, 2023 at the Seaside Highland Games in Ventura, CA.  The competition is named in honor of Pipe Major Angus MacDonald, MBE, a legend in the world of highland bagpiping.  Born in 1938, P/M MacDonald was “steeped in the military traditions of piping from boyhood” (The Guardian, October 1999).  In his early teens he was the pipe major of Queen Victoria School, and at age 15 he enlisted in the Scots Guards, which was the beginning of a 27-year military career, culminating in his becoming Scots Guards pipe major and Queen’s household piper.  After retiring from the Army, he taught internationally, joined the College of Piping in Glasgow, and was senior instructor at the Piping Centre in Glasgow.  Angus MacDonald died in 1999 at the untimely age of 60.

The Angus MacDonald Invitational began about 20 years ago and was held primarily in San Diego.  In 2011 it was held at the Seaside Highland Games in Ventura, CA and then went back to San Diego.  In recent years it has not been held, owing to COVID and other circumstances.  Now it has been revived for permanent inclusion in the Seaside Highland Games.  Sponsors for this year’s event were the Cameron Highlanders Pipe Band of San Diego, the Pan American Piobaireachd Society, and the J.J. Coyne Memorial School of Piping.

Two grade 2, two grade 1, and two professional pipers were invited to compete in Piobaireachd and in March, Strathspey, and Reel (MSR).  Judges were Bruce Hitchings, MBE, and Alan Bevan.  Pipers submitted several tunes in each category, and the judges chose the tunes.  Pipers were informed of their tunes several days prior to the event. 

Results:

Grade 2 Piobaireachd: 1st Noah Mittwer, 2nd Kevin Carothers

Grade 2 MSR: 1st Noah Mittwer, 2nd Kevin Carothers

Grade 1 Piobaireachd: 1st Cameron Bonar, 2nd Ross Morrill

Grade 1 MSR: 1st Cameron Bonar, 2nd Ross Morrill

Professional Piobaireachd: 1st Austin Diepenhorst, 2nd Richard King

Professional MSR: 1st Austin Diepenhorst, 2nd Richard King

Aggregate Winners: Grade 2: Noah Mittwer, Grade 1: Cameron Bonar, Professional: Austin Diepenhorst

All pipers displayed outstanding talent in their performances.  The aggregate winners were presented with plaques commemorating their participation.  The revival this year of the Angus MacDonald Invitational Piping Competition, with excellent players and world-class judges, added considerable prestige to the Seaside Highland Games.  The Pan American Piobaireachd Society looks forward to its growth in future years.