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SFU Pipe Band members Alan Bevan (left) and Colin Lee won big medals in world-class competition in Scotland.

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Members of the SFU pipe band won big honours in the prime events for bagpipe players at the Northern Meeting Piping Competitions in Scotland Sept. 4-5.                

It’s a competition that drew the top 100 pipers worldwide to Inverness—and SFU pipers Alan Bevan and Colin Lee were judged the best in their events.

• Bevan won the Gold Medal contest for piobaireachd, the most difficult of all events for solo pipers.
• Lee won the Silver Medal event for piobaireachd, the first level for professional pipers. 

Piobaireachd (pronounced pea-broch, with the ‘broch’ rhyming with the Scottish ‘loch’) is the Gaelic word for "piping". To pipers, it’s the ancient classical music of the bagpipe, with challenging compositions consisting of several variations on a theme, increasing in complexity as the piece progresses.

Bevan has placed second and third in this event a couple of times over the past decade. He’s an SFU alumnus, incidentally.

The Northern Meeting in Inverness and the Argyllshire Gathering in Oban, Scotland, are the only two competitions in the world where the Gold Medal and Silver Medal for piobaireachd are awarded.

The competitions are for professional pipers only—pipers who have reached the highest level of competitive success and grading—and only the 30 best pipers world-wide are accepted into each event. The Gold Medal for piobaireachd has been awarded since 1781.

Lee also won the won the B-level Marches event at Inverness. He’s the son of Jack Lee, pipe sergeant of the SFU Pipe Band, which as an ensemble won its fifth world championship in Scotland Aug. 16.

Jack Lee himself, a former winner of the gold medal, placed second in the Clasp level for piobaireachd at Inverness. The Clasp is for former winners of the Gold Medal event.

Piper Stuart Liddell won the best over-all aggregate honours in Clasp and Silver Star divisions for March, Strathspey & Reel. These divisions are for former winners of the March and Strathspey and Reel events.

And SFU piper Callum Beaumont placed third in the Gold Medal event for piobaireachd. He also placed fourth in the A-level March, Strathspey and Reel competition.