Comunn na Piobaireachd NZ

• 2014 CNP Financial Report
• 2014 Donald Bain Memorial Trust Financial Report

Introduction

On behalf of both the General and Music Committees I have pleasure in presenting the annual report for the 2013-2014 year.

While it has been a comparatively quiet year the “business as usual” activities have of course carried on and we report on these below.

The Right Honourable Sir Ian Lloyd McKay KNZM

Sadly, this report must begin by acknowledging the passing of Sir Ian McKay on February 20 2014.

Sir Ian was integrally involved in the establishment of this Society in 1957. He was Chair of the Music Committee from 1959 to 1970 and President for 36 years. 1970-2006. He won the Gold Medal in 1959 and the Clasp in 1968, 1970, 1974 and 1986.

Beyond the Society’s prizes Sir Ian was the winner of the NZ Championship Piobaireachd in 1956, 1968, 1981, 1982 and 1986. In 2006 he was awarded the Balvenie Medal at Blair Castle in Scotland for services to bagpipe music.

While our focus is of course on Sir Ian’s contribution to piping, he had an illustrious career in the law, culminating in his membership of the Privy Council and sitting as a judge of the Court of Appeal in New Zealand.

Seminars and teaching

Given the importance CNP attaches to the teaching of piobaireachd it is appropriate that we report fully on seminar and teaching activity during the year.

Two seminar series were held during the year. The following are the reports received from Iain Hines and Marion Horsburgh for the Wellington Seminars and Brendon Eade for the Hamilton Seminars:

“In Wellington a series of three sessions was held at approximately 3-week intervals in the winter.  We went over some Silver Medal, Gold medal and Clasp tunes from the 2014 list.  Attendance varied, with a total of 10 people taking part. 

An advantage of regular sessions (as opposed to one longer seminar) is that people have more time to learn the tunes.  A disadvantage is that attendance may vary.  For this series, both were true.  Some people made good progress on their selected tune, with some more advanced players going over several.  For others who attended only one or two sessions, progress was less obvious.

The wide range of experience and ability among participants meant that time focused at each level was limited. 

We would be happy to run 1-2 follow-up sessions.

Marion Horsburgh and Iain Hines”

____________________________

“In late September/October 2013 CNP hosted two seminars at  the Hamilton Caledonian Society Band rooms.  These consisted of  two  5  hour sessions across  consecutive  weekends covering many  aspects  of  piobaireachd,  including history, technique, performance  and  competition.

The seminars were attended by an enthusiastic group – 12 pipers in all, ranging  from learner/beginner pipers through to top silver medal competing  pipers.  They  came from Hamilton, Rotorua, Auckland, Coromandel.  Of  note  there were 1 or  2  adult  learners who had never come across  piobaireachd before.  The group however was  largely  made  up of  young  pipers all wanting to improve their  understanding of piobaireachd, with  most  expressing an interest  in competing at the  CNP competitions in Hastings, 2014.

Tunes  covered were  largely  from the CNP silver medal list, including Black Donald’s March, Hector  Maclean’s Warning, MacDonald  of  Kinlochmoidarts’ Lament #1 and Corrienessan’s  Salute. 

The  seminars  were  well received ,  and  it  is  pleasing  to note  that many  of  those pipers attending  have already gone  on to attend Summer school tuition in piobaireachd, or  enter  their  first piobaireachd  competition or  indeed enter  themselves in the  upcoming  CNP competitions at Hastings.  Most pipers have continued their contact and receive  ongoing  tuition either  via  face  to face or Skype.

I believe  that  the small seminars  that  CNP supports are  providing  a  valuable  tool in the  ongoing  pursuit to promote the understanding and performing of  our  art  to an ever  widening  audience

Brendon Eade”

_________________________________

As well as these CNP-specific initiatives we again collaborated with the RNZPBA to have dedicated teaching of Piobaireachd at the RNZPBA Summer School in January. Brendon Eade was again the dedicated piobaireachd tutor and he provided his report on the week as follows:

“I once again had the pleasure of  providing  piobaireachd tuition to pupils at  the RNZPBA summer school in Christchurch, on behalf of  CNP. This was  my  third  consecutive year as tutor at  this event and  this  was  the  fifth  consecutive year that  CNP had a dedicated piobaireachd  tuition stream at the school.  This continues to be a well received presence, as  evidenced  by a further  increase  in number of  students  attending the classes.

Tuition in piobaireachd was offered over 5 days Monday  to Friday, with  sessions for  beginners, bronze medal and  silver medal participants on a  daily  basis.  These sessions were  well attended, approx 5-6 per session at  beginner level, 5-6 at bronze level and  a very pleasing 10-12 silver medal level participants (largely made  up of  youth  band  members).One  on one sessions were also provided – 6  daily from Monday  to Thursday.  These were  essentially  fully booked, in fact some  ‘overflow  was  absorbed, with some  sessions overlapping  with  lunchtimes, just  to fit everybody  in.  There were a number of new faces at  all sessions which was  satisfying , suggesting  that  CNP is on the right track with an ever- increasing reach to new, young pipers. (and some not  so young!) Age ranges from 1year olds to 60+.

The  tunes covered were largely selected from CNP’s own Silver medal list  for  the  2014  Hastings Highland  Games and  included McLeod’s Short  Tune, Black Donald’s March , Hector Maclean’s Warning, MacDonald of  Kinlochmoidart’s Lament (1), Corrienessan’s Salute.  Other tunes included  the Donald  Macleod compositions Caber Feidh Gu Brath and  Lament  for  the Rowan Tree.  The Glen is Mine, Sir James macDonald of  the Isles Lament and Struan Robertson’s Salute were also explored.

Some attendee names included Angus Mackay, William McArthur, Adrienne Mclellan, Lewis MacDonald, Liam Thompson, Sam Darling, Josh Smith, Hamish Dick, Ollie Stapleton Stevens, Caitlin Mclellan, Nick Parsons, Blake and  Alex Wagstaff, Juliet Johnston, Morgan Tabateau, Anita Bentley, Anna Smart, Allwyn Mcallum, Scott Marshall.

In summary  I would  thank CNP for  the opportunity  to teach and  promote  piobaireachd at the summer school – and  encourage the  committee  to continue to have a  presence at  this  event  in the future”

We express our real thanks to Iain, Marion and Brendon for giving their time to this valuable teaching activity.

2013 Comunn Na Piobaireachd Competitions

The Society’s 55^th annual competitions were held at the Hastings Easter Highland Games over the weekend of 29-31 March 2013.

The judges for the weekend were Brian Switalla of Auckland and Ross Campbell of Queensland. We thank them both for their judging efforts over what is becoming an increasingly long weekend of piobaireachd.

The entries and results for the 4 competitions were as follows:

Clasp                                      Sponsored by Security Risk Management

1st Greg Wilson – Ronald McDonald or Morar’s Lament
2nd Brendon Eade – The Big spree
3rd Marion Horsburgh – Lament for Donald Duaghald McKay
4th Tom Glover – The Old Men of The Shells

Gold medal                            Sponsored anonymously

1st Gary Stewart – The Groat
2nd Liam Kernaghan – Lachlan McNeil Campbell of Kintarbert’s Fancy
3rd William Rowe – Lachlan McNeil Campbell of Kintarbert’s Fancy
4th Jason Craig (Canberra) – The Young Laird of Dungallen’s Salute

Silver medal                           Sponsored by Bruce Cawood

1st Reuben McDonnell – Lament for Mary McLeod
2nd Donella May – Too Long in this Condition
3rd Scott Marshall – The Little Spree
4th Hamish Dick – Too Long in this Condition

 

Bronze Medal                         Sponsored by Donald Gannaway

1st Anna Smart – The Glen is Mine

2nd Tim Dudley – Too Long in this Condition

3rd Cameron Richardson – Struan Robertson’s Salute

4th William Rogerson – The Little Spree

We express our sincere appreciation to the sponsors named alongside each event. It is important that these annual competitions are characterised by “prestige”. This prestige inevitably involves a financial element and we thank our sponsors for enabling this to continue.

Competitions in Scotland

As has become the tradition we have pleasure in recording the results of the premier piobaireachd competitions in Scotland during 2013.

Northern Meeting

Clasp                                                             

1st Stuart Liddell, Inveraray, Scotland, “Lachlan MacNeill Campbell of Kintarbert’s Fancy”

2nd Callum Beaumont, Bo’ness, Scotland, “Lachlan MacNeill Campbell of Kintarbert’s Fancy”

3rd Jack Lee, Surrey, British Columbia, “Ronald MacDonald of Morar’s Lament”

4th Willie McCallum, Bearsden, Scotland, “The Old Men of the Shells”

5th Glenn Brown, Glasgow, “In Praise of Morag”

Judges: John Wilson, Bill Wotherspoon, Andrew Wright

Highland Society of London Gold Medal   

1st Callum Beaumont, Bo’ness, Scotland, “Nameless – Hiharin odin, hiharin dro”

2nd Douglas Murray, Cupar, Scotland, “The Rout of Glenfruin”

3rd Faye Henderson, Aberdeen, Scotland, “Clanranald’s Salute”

4th Cameron Drummond, Edinburgh, “Clanranald’s Salute”

5th John Mulhearn, Glasgow, “The Rout of Glenfruin”

Judges: Malcolm McRae, William Morrison, Stuart Shedden

Silver Medal  

1st Alasdair Henderson, “Lord MacDonald’s Lament”

2nd Craig Sutherland, Crieff, Scotland, “Fair Honey”

3rd Darach Urquhart, Glasgow, “All the Old Men Paid Rent but Rory”

4th Jamie Forrester, London, “Duntroon’s March”

5th George Stewart, Perth, Scotland, “Melbank’s Salute”

Judges: Bruce Hitchings, Iain Morrison, Jack Taylor

 

Argyllshire Gathering

Highland Society of London Gold Medal

1st Alan Bevan, Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada, “The Young Laird of Dugallon’s Salute”

2nd Douglas Muurray, Cupar, Scotland, “Kinlochmoidart No 2″

3rd Innes Smith, Bridge of Allan, Scotland, “Nameless”

4th Andrew Bonar, Vancouver, “Nameless”

5th Fiona Manson, Glasgow, “Clanranald’s Salute”

Judges: Patricia Henderson, Ronnie McShannon, Bill Wotherspoon

Senior Piobaireachd

1st Jack Lee, “Lady MacDonald’s Lament”

2nd Bruce Gandy, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia

3rd Alastair Dunn, Glasgow

4th Callum Beaumont, Glasgow

5th Gordon Walker, Moscow, Scotland

Judges: John MacDougall, Stuart Shedden, Jack Taylor

 

 

 

Silver Medal Final     

1st James P. Troy, “Melbank’s Salute”

2nd Alasdair Henderson, “Fair Honey”

3rd Jamie Forrester, “Grain in Hides and Corn in Sacks”

4th Darach Urquhart, “The Parading of the MacDonalds”

5th Graham Drummond, “All the Old Men Paid Rent But Rory”

Judges: Robert Wallace, Bob Worrall, Andrew Wright

As always Kiwi pipers were very present in Scotland during the year. Among those competing around the Games circuit in 2013 were: Jamie Hawke, Tom Glover, Liam Kernaghan, Matt Fraser, Fiona Manson, Tracey Williams and Stuart Easton

 

 

Membership/Friends of Piobaireachd

Membership and Friends of Piobaireachd numbers have remained fairly static.

There is a range of funding sources for the activities and benefits provided by CNP and, as evidenced by the financial statements, these sources currently just manage to cover the cost of those activities.

We particularly appreciate the generous contribution made by our “Friends”

I believe we should all work towards a progressive increase in membership as those who benefit from the Society’s activities recognise the merits and perhaps obligation to contribute to the funding of those activities. This encouragement to join should not be left to the Committee: those who are teaching and working with piobaireachd pupils are well positioned to explain what CNP does and encourage them to join.

 

Officers

The following have been the Office Bearers during the 2013-2014 year

Patron                         His Excellency Lieutenant General The Right Honourable Sir Jerry Mateparae, GNZM, QSO, Governor General of New Zealand

President                     Nigel Foster

Vice President             Ian Blakely

Secretary/Treasurer    Brendon Eade

Music Committee        Iain Hines (chair), Greg Wilson (Secretary), Brian Switalla, Bain McGregor, Marion Horsburgh

General Committee     All of the above (except the Patron), Liam Kernaghan and Tom Glover

Honorary Auditor         Graeme Mitchell

I thank all the office bearers for the commitment they have made to their various roles during the year. I also note and express our appreciation for the work done behind the scenes by Meleana Eade in support of the secretary treasurer role.

 

Financial

Attached are the financial statements for the 2013-2014 year for:

Comunn Na Piobaireach (NZ) Inc and

The Donald Bain Memorial Fund- of which the Society is Trustee

Both sets of financial statements have been audited by Graeme Mitchell

There is little to comment on in detail. However, we do note that the Society incurred a modest loss for the year although taken together the two entities recorded a surplus and the combined reserves are healthy- a sound foundation for future activity

 

I will have pleasure in presenting this report and recommending its adoption at the forthcoming Annual General Meeting

 

Kind regards

 

 

Nigel Foster

President

On Wednesday 16th October at 6:30 pm Murray Mansfield will be presenting a Bagpipe Music Theory workshop at the City of Wellington Band Hall.

The workshop will cover the theory component of the RNZPBA College piping certificates – however, anyone interested is invited to attend.

A number of tunes, both 2014 medal and other non-medal, have been added to the CNP tune archive. These tunes feature Greg Wilson and Murray Henderson. Click here to view and download. Click here to contact me for a password or for details about joining.

The Clasp tunes available are:

• Nameless (Cherede darievea)
• Lady Margaret MacDonald’s Salute

The Gold Medal tunes are:

• Lament for Captain MacDougall
• Lament for Finlay
• Sobieski’s Salute
• Lament for the Departure of King James

We are looking for expressions of interest from people wishing to attend a series of piobaireachd workshops to be held in Wellington on the following Sunday afternoons.

I attended these in 2012 and they were excellent. If you want to compete at the 2014 Hawkes Bay Games, or just want to learn some cool tunes, these sessions are well worth it.

August 25th and September 8th and 22nd.

The venue, programme and tutors will be firmed up once we know how many are attending.  The workshops will be free of charge to financial members of the piobaireachd society  (costs $25 to join)and $10 per workshop for non-members.    There will be an emphasis on the set tunes for the 2014 Hawkes Bay Easter Highland Games.

Please let Marion Horsburgh know by 16th June by clicking here if you are interested. Please pass this on to others who you think may like to attend.

Two scholarships in piping and drumming are available to assist students who have demonstrated an outstanding level of merit in solo performance in either Scottish piping or drumming and all-round academic ability to attend the University of Otago.

For further information click here or Contact Dorothy Duthie -  dorothy.duthie@otago.ac.nz

Click here for the full results from PBnews.

George Mason won the Piobaireachd (the Targe as shown left), playing Lament for Donald Duaghal McKay, from Brendon Eade who played Black Donald`s March. Tom Glover was third playing McLeod of Raasay`s Salute.

Brendon Eade won the Colin Craig Claidhmor (March, Strathspey, Reel, Jig & Hornpipe) from Stewart McKenzie.