Bodhrans | Flutes & Whistles | Free Reed | Pipes | Stringed | Other | sheet music Celtic-Instruments.com HomeView Celtic-Instruments.com CartCeltic-Instruments Site Map

Alasdair Gillies

Alasdair Gillies boasts one of the finest records all-time in piping competitions, with 28 (and counting) first-place showings at Oban and Inverness, and multiple championships in the Glenfiddich, all capped off by his 10 (and counting) victories in the Inverness Former Winners MSR (Marches/Strathspeys/Reels repertoire). In 1997, Alasdair left the Army after 17 years of service with the Queen’s Own Highlanders, the world’s most renowned pipe band, to accept a position as instructor and administrator of the collegiate pipe band at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Alasdair was born in 1963 and spent his first 11 years in Glasgow, where his father, Norman Gillies, was Pipe Major of the Territorial Army Pipe Band of the 1st Battalion 52nd Lowland Volunteers. Norman then moved the family to Ullapool (in the West Highlands) to accept a post as piping instructor with the schools in Wester Ross.

Norman started teaching Alasdair the pipes when he was nine years old, and Alasdair made very rapid progress. At age 16, he joined the Army as a junior piper. He rose to become Pipe Major in 1992, and was at the helm for the 1994 merger of the Queen's Own and the Gordon Highlanders that formed the Highlanders Regiment. Gillies envisioned big things from the new regiment, but he was not allowed to make full use of the combined group's piping talents, and the Regiment even went through a regrettable downsizing.

Alasdair's displeasure with the way the merger was handled led to his 1997 departure for Carnegie-Mellon, where he teaches piping theory, history, composition and reedmaking. He also is the administrator for the university pipe band, maintaining them in top form and escorting them to competitions.

Norman Gillies was Alasdair's first bagpipe teacher, and he is still hard at work. Every year, Alasdair makes a journey home for a final rehearsal of his tunes, as a tuneup before the major annual competitions, all under his father's watchful (and surely approving) supervision.

Recordings featuring Alasdair Gillies

The Piping Centre 1996 Recital Series, Vol. 1, with Jack Lee