Lorne Cousin at Glasgow’s International Piping Festival

Glasgow will play host to some of the world’s best pipers later this year, when it holds its annual International Piping Festival.

More than 5,000 musicians of two dozen different nationalities will gather in the city during August to showcase the wide diversity of styles possible from the instrument.

In addition to the traditional Highland bagpipes, there will be techno piping from Australia, the Uilleann pipes from Ireland, ceilidhs and the culmination of the event in the World Pipe Band Championships at Glasgow Green.

The programme for the festival, which takes place between 8 and 14 August, was unveiled yesterday at the National Piping Centre by Lorne Cousin – who toured the world as the piper on Madonna’s Reinvention Tour – local councillor Alex Mosson and Piping Live director Roddy MacLeod.

Cousin, who toured with Madonna last year, said that the festival audience would be tougher than the one’s he had become used to.

“Both audiences are equally demanding, the traditional audience knows exactly what they are listening for,” he said. “Madonna’s audience are perhaps open to different things.”
Article by Craig Brown
Source: Scotsman.com