World champion pipe band to perform at Henty field days

Visitors will have the chance to see the 2023 World Champion Pipe Band from Albury’s The Scots School perform at the 2024 Henty Machinery Field Days.

The band will stage a performance on Wednesday, September 18 at The Stump at 1pm.

The Scots Pipe Band was crowned the 2023 World Pipe Band Champion in Glasgow in August last year, amid a gruelling 26-performance schedule at the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo and just weeks after taking out the Scottish Pipe Band Championships in their category, Grade 4B.

To top off what was a highly successful tour to Scotland, the band was crowned Grade 4B Best Drum Corps as well as Champion of Champion, which takes into account the band’s wins in the Scottish and World titles.

The remarkable World Championship effort was accomplished by a mix of alumni, current students, some as young as 12, and friends of the pipe band. It was led by Pipe Band coordinator Scott Nicholson, drum tutor Tom Mewett, pipe major Liam Nicholson, pipe sergeant Jonny Coe, drum major Max Coupland, and drum sergeant Damon Wright.

The pipe band performed as part of the Massed Pipes and Drums in every one of the 26 performances across 20 days in Scotland and performs at countless community events and competitions across the border region and beyond every year.

In a single year, the Pipe Band can conduct up to 50 band and solo performances – an extraordinary achievement.

It has 32 players registered with the Australian Pipe Band Association for the purpose of competing at association competitions and there are 56 pupils attending piping and drumming tuition each week.

The pipe band played a pivotal role in celebrating the school’s sesquicentennial year in 2016 when it proudly performed at The Scots School Albury’s 150th Anniversary Highland Gathering and Tattoo. 

The event drew over 4000 people to the school grounds and the crowd was treated to a great range of entertainment including pipe bands, highland dancing, clan tents, kilted warriors and a delicious selection of food.

In 2014, the pipe band made its first international trip, performing at the Jakarta Highland Gathering where it was crowned Southeast Asian Champions in the Juvenile grade, a feat it repeated in 2015. In August 2014, members of the band travelled to Scotland to compete at several competitions including the World Pipe Band  Championships. 

2016 saw the pipe band vying for national championships on either side of the Tasman. In March the band travelled to the North Island township of Fielding for the New Zealand Pipe Band Championships, competing against many polished bands in both the Grade 4 and Juvenile competitions. 

History was made that year when the pipe band competed for the first time at the 2016 Australian Pipe Band Championships.

Although several members of the band had previously competed at the Nationals as members of other bands, this was the first time The Scots School Albury Pipe Band had competed as its own entity.