![]() He has a son living in Australia, and a son and two daughters as well as six grandchildren still living in Scotland.All The Blue Bonnets Are Over The Border ~ MarchĬailin Mo Ruin-Sa (The Maid I Adore) ~ Air I tried one time years ago to learn, but it was very difficult,” said Brodie.ĭonaldson lives in Lexington. “I look forward to working with him in the years ahead. Brodie (Hon), VMI director of music, believes Donaldson has already had an impact on the Pipe Band. Competing is the best way to reach a higher level.”Ĭol. I want to take the band to competitions and have them compete as a band as well as individual players. “I want to capitalize on the fantastic job my predecessor did and take the Pipe Band to the next level. “VMI is a first-class school, very impressive,” said Donaldson. He taught at Missouri Military Academy in Mexico, Missouri, for two years before accepting the position of director of the pipes and drums at VMI. John’s Northwestern Military Academy in Delafield, Wisconsin, where he taught for seven years. In 2012, he was offered a position teaching at St. “To me, the name Inveran House sounded like a hotel,” he quipped. He purchased the company where he apprenticed and changed its name to Inveran Bagpipe Makers. He has been invited numerous times to the famous Glenfiddich Piping Championships at Blair Castle in Perthshire, Scotland.Īfter a successful military career, Donaldson returned to the trade he apprenticed long ago as a bagpipe craftsman. He has earned many awards in multiple competitions, including the Highland Society of London’s Gold Medal, the most coveted award in piping the Bratach Gorm, the highest prize given by the Scottish Piping Society of London and the Donald MacDonald Quaich. He finished out his 22-year military career teaching at the Army School of Bagpipe Music and Highland Drumming in Edinburgh, Scotland.ĭonaldson became one of the most renowned pipers in the British Army. In 1998, Donaldson became pipe major at the Army Training Regiment in Glencourse, Scotland. “I had opportunities to dance with her and with Princess Diana as well.” “I played many times for her majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, at Balmoral Castle and in her birthday parades, called the Trooping of the Colour,” Donaldson recalled. He was subsequently promoted to pipe sergeant in 1993, then to pipe major, the leading musician in a bagpipe band, in 1995. Later, he was posted to the Army School of Piping as an instructor for three years. He soldiered in the Falklands War and served tours of duty in Northern Ireland during the height of the unrest. He passed his pipe majors course at the Army School of Piping at Edinburgh Castle in 1982. He served with that regiment all over the world. Later, he enlisted in the Scots Guards, whose primary duty is guarding the British monarch. and didn’t get back until 7 p.m.,” said Donaldson.ĭonaldson’s renown as a pipe player began at a young age when he played with the world-famous Dysart and Dundonald Pipe Band, winning every major championship in the pipe band world. “I commuted 45 miles one way every day by train to Edinburgh from my hometown. Every day he would make the long commute to learn the craft of bagpipe making. Brian Donaldson.Īfter graduating from high school, Donaldson served his apprenticeship at Inveran House, a bagpipe maker in Edinburgh, Scotland. Brian Donaldson poses in his full bagpipe dress complete with kilt, plaid, and feather bonnet as pipe major in Scotland.-Photo courtesy Maj. ![]() It was Donaldson’s father who first taught him to play. Donaldson’s grandfather and father were miners, and his father was also a renowned bagpipe player and teacher. The corps was supported by the miners, who each contributed one penny of each week’s wages to them. When he was growing up, each local mine, or colliery, had its own pipes and drums corps, which provided a spirit of community and kinship. Brian Donaldson.ĭonaldson is originally from Cardenden in Fife, a small mining village in Scotland. The Pipe Band, which serves as a musical ambassador throughout the United States, has recently added Scottish authenticity to its ranks with the band’s new director, Maj. In Lexington, the VMI Pipe Band not only instills pride in the Corps of Cadets but in everyone who hears and sees the cadet pipers in post parades and community holiday parades. In modern times, they instill pride, honor, dignity, and delight when heard during pageantry, and feelings of tenderness and warmth during memorials. Originally, the bagpipes were Scottish instruments of war, designed to inspire soldiers into battle.
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