The Vancouver Island Pipers Club has always been a big part of our family's life. Ever since James P. and I were born...and believe me, we were there in our baby seats...we have attended the Pipers Club on the first Saturday of the month from October to May for YEARS!
James W. was a founding member and went on be President for a stint. I have followed in his footsteps and have been the President for four seasons now. The Club has been around since 1968 and was near extinction in 2006. I felt that with it being such a big part of my life and such an important vehicle for local musicians, both young and old - I could not let the Club disappear. With a great executive behind me, we have managed to increase attendance in small increments and gain some enthusiasm and support from the local musicians and lovers of Scottish music once again.
One thing that we've been trying to do is re-instate the importance of supporting and encouraging the young up and coming musicians. The Club was formed based on the notion that it would be a non-competitive environment yet it has been hard to break the impression from many of the local organizations that they must be up to competitive standard. Even though Victoria is a small place, there are many pipe bands, mostly militarily connected, that we have not seen at the Club in a long while. Slowly but surely and one by one, we are convincing them to participate and to help feature young players within their organization that otherwise might not have had the chance to play the Club.
One tradition the Club used to have was competitions. We haven't seen this at the Club in years but out of the archives, these photos surfaced! Thanks to Richard and Lorraine Collett for these!
Best Pupil of the Month - Marches
The Lieutenant-Governors Challenge Cup Awarded to the Champion Pupil of the Year
Best Pupil of the Month - Strathspey and Reel
Best Pupil of the Month - Strathspey and Reel
Look at some of the names! P/M Terry Lee!
Best Pupil of the Month - Marches
Bruce Gandy - two years in a row! He actually won the Strathspey and Reel trophy from 1975-1978 as well.
The last time these trophies were awarded were in the 1980s. Some great trophies with some great names on them!
-JLT
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3 comments:
Glad you got those photos!! Great post. It inspired me to write a post for the Washington Pipers' Association blog, here: http://www.washingtonpipers.org/2010/04/18/minding-history-moving-forward/
A question for you; does VIP Club still have perpetual trophies? WPA purchases plaques for the winners each year, but as noted in my post, there's some historic and fun value in perpetual trophies like this.
How have you been reaching out to the miitary bands? I visited most of the competition bands shortly after I took over at WPA, but there are some bands I haven't had much success encouraging members to check us out. I started publishing the band that the player is with in the results to start giving publicity to the bands, but I'm not sure if that's working.
WPA is more concerned about the supportive and community environment, music and finally being able to provide some meaningful scholarships toward piping/drumming camps at the end of the season than a total focus on competition, but we are also interested in helping bands publicize their events and generally raising awareness of piping and drumming in our area. The future is bright, but there's a lot of work to do.
Thanks again for your post. It gave my brain a good kickstart and got me thinking, at least.
(sorry for multiple deleted comments, account overlap issues)
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