MWPBA - Latest news from the MWPBA

The Swinton May 3rd - Order of Play

The 2025 "P.M. Ian Swinton Open Piping Championship will be held Saturday, May 3rd at the Park Ridge Presbyterian Church at 1300 W. Crescent Ave, Park Ridge, IL 60068.

We have 12 top-flight soloists this year, so the contest will start earlier than previous years.

Doors open at 9:30 a.m., and our first competitor is up at 11am. Order of play

Admission is free. Come on out and enjoy the competition!

Results for the 2025 McHugh Solo Piping Contest

Thank you to all the contestants and spectators whom attended the 2025 Terry McHugh Memorial Solo Piping Contest! The clinic and recital by Nick Hudson will be posted on our YouTube Channel shortly, watch this space for details.

The winners:

2025 Terry McHugh Winners

(Left to Right): Vice Pres. Scott McCawley, David Dwyer, Thomas Gallo, Taylor Pulido, Kevin Neveau, Syd Lybert, Paul Jones, Pres. Jim Sim

Here are the results:

2025 Terry McHugh Memorial Solo Contest Results

2025 Education Series Seminar - Ben Elkins, Wed April 16

Our next event in the 2025 MWPBA Education Seminars will be on Wed, April 16 at 7:00pm Central Time.

Our featured presenter will be Ben Elkins, bass drummer with the Grade 1 City of Dunedin Pipe Band. Ben is a two-time North American Gold Medal Bass Drumming Champion at Winter Storm and was previously bass drummer for Grade 2 MacMillan of Maryland.

Ben's topic will be "Bass Drumming, Both Solo and Band".

No sign up is necessary. We will send out the Zoom Link a day or two before on the MWPBA email mailing list and the MWPBA Facebook group, and right here on mwpba.org. All you have to do is join the Zoom Call to attend the seminar.

There is no fee for this and it is open to all members and non-members alike. If you are not yet a member of the MWPBA, do please consider joining us as an individual member or supporting member, to support our mission of furthering the development of the art of piping and drumming throughout the midwest.

Put this on your calendars and we will see you there.

If you are new to the MWPBA Seminar Series, you can check out our back-issues here.

Nick Hudson Live Seminar and Recital after the Terry McHugh contest

Nick Hudson will be conducting an in-person seminar in the afternoon of the Terry McHugh Memorial amateur piping contest on March 29.

Doors open at 10:00 a.m.

The amateur solo piping contests start at 11:30 a.m., with awards given out at 2:15 p.m.

The seminar will begin at 2:30 p.m.

Nick will also be giving a solo bagpipe recital, which starts at 3:30 p.m.

This should be a great day of piping competition, instruction, and entertainment. There is no fee or registration for the Seminar nor the Recital.

Here is the complete schedule of the events.

Hopefully we'll see you there!

2025 Education Series Seminar - Bob Worrall, Tue March 18

The 2025 MWPBA Education Seminars continue on Tuesday March 18 at 7:00pm Central Time, with a session hosted by Bob Worrall on "How to improve your band's ensemble performance".

As usual, no sign-up is necessary. The Zoom Link will be posted a day or two before on the MWPBA email mailing list and the MWPBA Facebook group, and right here on mwpba.org. All you have to do is join the Zoom Call to attend the seminar.

There is no fee for this and it is open to all members and non-members alike.