Our congratulations to all competitors

Under 12: Slow Air 

 Under 15: 2/4 March 

 Under 18: Strathspey & Reel 

 Under 21: March Strathspey & Reel 

 Under 26: Jig 

 Silver Tassie Final 

Australasian Young Piper of the year and winner of the Silver Tassie 

Yasuchiyo Hamilton

Queensland Police Juvenile Pipe Band

Gold Coast, Queensland  

NSW Heat for the Australian Solo Piping Championships, Brisbane

Winner of the Bill Green OAM Memorial Trophy for 2006

Simon McLean

McGlashan College Pipe Band

Dunedin New Zealand

 Winner of the Fran and Ron Poulton Encouragement Award

 Sam Wood

Scots College, Sydney

The best part of any contest in which young people are challenged to excel is when the winners step up to collect their prizes.

Then, you can see their success in their faces: they really do glow - and their eyes shine.

And, while it’s trite to say so, every competitor is a winner.

Pipe Major Barry Gray stressed this conclusion when summing up and announcing the winner of The Silver Tassie – a solo bagpiping competition for youngsters to decide the proprietorship of a splendid piece of silverware, and the right to the title of Australasian Young Piper of the Year for 2006.

“Some of you were afflicted with ‘nerves’ when you started to play” observed Pipe Major Gray “But there is one sure remedy: the more you compete, the better you’ll be”.

Words of wisdom for 33 young pipers.

Hopefully, these words of wisdom entered the ears and registered in the minds of the 33 young pipers who had come to the village of Sutton Forest in the Southern Highlands of NSW for the third Silver Tassie.

But, ironically, it was a remedy that lacked a malady in the case of this year’s winner of the elegantly engraved silver quaiche.

Yasuchiyo Hamilton is just 13 years old and has been learning and playing the pipes for only three years in her Gold Coast (Queensland) home, but already she has the calm assurance of a maestro.  

Immaculately turned out in the uniform of the Queensland Police Juvenile Pipe Band, the slim young girl with the beautiful face entranced judges and audience alike with her composure as she crisply performed The Highland Wedding – all six parts of that demanding tune.  

Piping knows no national boundaries

Bagpiping has never recognised national borders despite its popular image as a captive of Scotland. Yasuchiyo was born in Australia, her mother Japanese, her Australian father of Scottish descent (although never himself a piper, but always an admirer). 

Runner-up in The Silver Tassie, Simon McLean (19) on the other hand hails from Dunedin in the south island of New Zealand, a city founded by Scottish emigrants in 1848 and renowned as the "Edinburgh of the South". One day, at an early age, Simon discovered his grandfather's pipes (in a box under the stairs?) and promptly enlisted in the local pipe band. 

Meanwhile, third-place-getter Jamie Forsyth lives in fine wool country at rural Taralga near Goulburn NSW and exhibits his devotion to piping by belonging to two pipe bands simultaneously. He travels long distances to rehearse and perform but still finds time to be the co-founder of the new Canberra Pipers Society. 

Judge Ainslie Hart, Pipe Sergeant with Blacktown City Pipe Band, remarked on the tightness of the contest: “Just one point separated each of the three top place-getters in a field of 33 talented young pipers, and there was a high standard of piping overall”. 

Quality piping, serious competition

Credit for the good roll-up must go to Pipe Major Barry Gray who has shouldered much of the burden of ensuring a quality contest, seriously well organised. He has enthusiastically embraced the idea of a juvenile solo piping contest that challenges the pipers to do their best (and learn from their experiences, good or ill) and at the same time put on an entertaining show for the audience. "Pipe music should be for listeners as much as for players" he maintains. 

Helping to ensure that the lads and lasses gained enlightenment as well as enjoyment, Pipe Major Robert Pearce OAM (honoured by his nation for 50 years' service to bagpiping in Australia) chaired the judging panel, and offered wise advice: "Select tunes within your ability; a difficult tune played barely adequately gets you fewer points than a simple tune played properly". 

A trans-Tasman tussle

Simon McLean did not go back across the Tasman Sea empty-handed. He took with him the Bill Green OAM Memorial Trophy as the winner of the NSW heat for the Australian Solo Piping Championships. McLean praised the organisation of the contest, noting the emphasis on ensuring the contestants played in front of a capacity audience who listened knowledgably: "Our hosts made a real effort to tell the audience what was going on, what the pipes and pipe music were all about, and they warmly introduced each of the pipers and their tunes. It made a real difference to the standard of the performances, and to the audience's appreciation of the contest. It's a great way of getting more people interested in bagpiping".  

McLean is already thinking of returning next year for another crack at the Australasian title: "Unusually, this contest is age based, rather than decided by grades, so I'm eligible to compete up to my 26^th birthday. I'll be encouraging other young Kiwi pipers to give it a go next year and wave the flag for New Zealand". 

Piobaireachd by candlelight

The Sutton Forest village hall was dressed in spectacular style for the contest: walls and ceilings were decorated to created the illusion of a grand castle interior (the candle-lit stage offered free finger-warming facilities for chilled pipers!). The setting was a reminder of the previous evening's festivities when 75 guests sat down to a tummy-swelling feast and a full program of entertainment. Highland dancers from Lynette Reinhard's Campbelltown school leavened a piping "exposition," the highlight of which was Robert Pearce's presentation under the title The Magic of Piobaireachd. His explanation, in words and music, of the story of The Desperate Battle of the Birds engaged everyone's imagination. Rarely can the classical music of the pipes have been embraced with such enthusiasm by so many first-time listeners. Credit goes to Graham Abbott, whose radio presentation Keys to Music on ABC Classic FM inspired the idea. 

The best in Australia

The Silver Tassie is now Australia's foremost juvenile solo piping contest. It owes its success to the many people who support it through sponsorship, participation and patronage. Special mention must be made of Stephen and Ann Brine of Scottish Accessories Shoppe of Croydon; the McEwan family of The Australasian Highlander; David Kerrigan of the Bundanoon Hotel; Temple Records; and judges Pearce, Gray and Hart. 

The Silver Tassie will shine again on the weekend of Saturday and Sunday 20 and 21 October 2007.

______________________________________________________

 More information:   A Little Piece of Scotland

                                 Exeter Road

                                 SUTTON FOREST  NSW  2577

                                Telephone & fax:  02 4868-3492

                                 email:   barnowl@acenet.com.au  

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