Contact:
Jack Lee, 604.574.3299; jack@leeandsonsbagpipes.com
(Lee has just returned from Scotland, is home for a week the heads back to compete at the Northern Meeting in Inverness)
Marianne Meadahl, PAMR, 778.782.9017; Marianne_Meadahl@sfu.ca

Of interest: The full length documentary, Battle of the Bagpipes, featuring SFU’s senior and junior bands in Scotland, is being streamed by the Knowledge Network, for Canadian viewers, at http://at.sfu.ca/uGbyOk

Members of the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band are bringing home more hardware from Scotland after a string of solo competitions that followed this month’s World Pipe Band Championships.

Pipe Sergeant Jack Lee (of Surrey) took second place in the March, Strathspey and Reel (MSR) at the Argyllshire Gathering at Oban, a prestigious competition reserved for previous winners of the Gold Medal.

Lee, considered one of the world’s best pipers, has won all of the top international awards available, twice winning the Highland Society of London Gold medal (2001 and 1981) and twice, the coveted Clasp at Inverness (2010 and 1994).

And at the Cowal Highland Gathering, considered the world’s biggest highland games, his son Andrew Lee (of Langley) placed second in the A-level Piobaireachd, third in the Strathspey and Reel and fifth in the March.

Meanwhile Alistar Lee (of Coquitlam), son of Pipe Major Terry Lee, took first prize in the Srathspey and Reel, second in the March and third in the Piobaireachd. Piper Jori Chisholm (of Seattle) placed second in the Strathspey and Reel and sixth in the March.

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.

“We’ve had good success in solo competitions over the years, and have a number of young pipers making names for themselves,” says Lee. The world’s pre-eminent drumming competitions are held in Scotland in late October.

The senior band placed third at the ‘Worlds’ in Glasgow in mid-August - its 20^th top three finish in 30 years of competing.

Several of the senior band’s pipers and drummers are getting set to teach its junior band program. The Robert Malcolm Memorial pipe band provides instruction for youths from the ages of six to 16 on Tuesday evenings at the Burnaby campus, beginning in mid-September.

The RMM Grade 3 band won first prize at the Worlds earlier this month while its Grade 4 band took home third after competing for the first time. The junior band competes at the Worlds every two years.

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