Great Basin Branch- Awards Dinner

I'm just back from the WUSPBA-Great Basin Branch awards dinner and here are the 2007 branch aggregate winners:

Individual Piping:

• Grade I- Melissa Bautz
• Grade II- Sean Fetherston
• Grade III- Alex Morrill
• Grade IV- Corrie Nichol

Individual Drumming:

• Grade I Snare- William Gunn
• Grade III Snare- Sean Gibson
• Grade IV Snare- Dustin Gunn
• Grade II Tenor- Meaghan Brown and Malarie Reddoor

Pipe Bands:

• Grade IV- Henry's Fork Pipe Band
• Grade III- Salt Lake Scots Pipe Band

Congratulations to the winners and best of luck in the upcoming competition season!

Salt Lake Scots Concert

It's been a couple of years since I've heard the Salt Lake Scots play and was very pleasantly surprised. Jason Killpack has done a very good job with the pipe corps and BJ Gunn has maintained the standard he's always set for his drum corps. The band is playing the new 'Gael' chanter that was developed with the aid of Jim McGillivray-- it's a much lower pitch than most chanters being played-- and the drum corps are playing new Andante drums. I wasn't sure if I liked the sound of the chanters at first, but found it to be quite pleasant. The drone sound that comes out with an overall lower pitched instrument always seems more rich with more depth.
The Salt Lake Scots are playing well and I wish them the best of luck through the rest of the season and upcoming years. Here are a few pictures from the concert: