Pipe and drum band marches on

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This article was published 24/08/2018 (2840 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Like any community organization, the Transcona & District Pipe Band has had its ups and down. But the band marches on.

In 2015, the traditional Scottish drum and bagpipe group celebrated its 50th anniversary. However, following that year, many of the band’s senior members turned 18 and moved on. With a much younger core group of musicians, the band was in rebuild mode.

“All the kids who were 10 at the time have now been getting onto their full instrument,” said Kathleen Hunt, special events co-ordinator for the Transcona & District Pipe Band. 

But on Sept. 22, the band will return to the Transcona Highland Gathering for its first adjudicated performance in three years.

“Competition allows the kids to get that adjudication and those pointers, so they can get even better,” Hunt said. “Obviously, everybody likes to win, so it gives them something to push towards, but it gives them an opportunity to get that unbiased feedback.”

Hunt got involved with the group two years ago when her son Matthew, now 10, started training on the bagpipes.

“He was pretty hesitant at first, because he wasn’t seeing a lot of progress,” Hunt said. “This past season he has really improved. He’s on track and hoping at the end of this next year they’ll move him up from chanter on to the bagpipes.”

Today, the Transcona & District Pipe Band has seven pipers and eight drummers who regularly parade with the band, with Matthew Hunt and another three pipers and four drummers still in training.

This past summer, the group paraded at Hi Neighbour, the Scottish pavilion at Folklorama, the Carmen Country Fair, and the Legion’s Decoration Day in June. Hunt said she is always looking for opportunities for the band to perform in public.

“The band that plays together just gets better,” she said. “The group we have now are still quite young, so we’re still relying fairly heavily on alumni members to come out and play with us to fill out numbers.”

The upcoming Transcona Highland Gathering, which will be held at Oxford Heights Community Centre (359 Dowling Ave. E) on Sept. 22, gives the band a chance to get back into competition.

“It’s an opportunity to play different pieces of music, too,” Hunt said. “A competition medley is different than a parade march.” 

The event, which is presented by the Transcona & District Pipe Band in association with the Prairie Pipe Band Association of Manitoba, also provides an opportunity for the public to immerse themselves in Scottish culture.

Throughout the day, the Manitoba Association of Celtic Sports will be holding its Scottish Highland Heavy Games competition on one end of the Oxford Heights grounds, while the band and solo performances will occupy another. Demonstrations from the Manitoba Association of Highland Dancers and the Lads & Lassies country dancing group will take place in both the morning and the afternoon. Broadsword Academy Manitoba will also be doing a demonstration. 

Visitors can also enjoy a taste of Scotland’s national dish, courtesy of Will’s Tasty Food.

“He’s developed, in partnership with East End Meats, developed a haggis smokey, so you can get ‘haggis on a bun’,” Hunt said.

For more information on the Transcona Highland Gathering, visit www.transconahighlandgathering.org

Sheldon Birnie
Community Journalist

Sheldon Birnie is a reporter/photographer for the Free Press Community Review. Email him at sheldon.birnie@freepress.mb.ca or call him at 204-697-7112

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