The Colonial Highland Gathering at Fair Hill proved to be another success for the MacMillan organization on May 16th. All three bands competed in 4 events total, and over a dozen members also competed in solo events.

Congrats to all MacMillan soloists, winning 6 events and placing in 10 others! Winners included Beth Morgan, Sam Johnson, Jeremiah Whitney and Chris Imlay. Keep up the great work!

The MacMilllan-Dunn band again improved their performance in a tough field of seven talented bands and continue the trend of learning from every contest and peformance. Huge congratulations go to the Rockville High School Pipe Band, earning straight 1st place from each of the four judges in the Grade 5 event.  MacMillan-Birtles too had stiff competition in the Grade 4 contest, and are well on their way to the prize list for our next contest in New Jersey, July 11th!

The MacMillan band had two strong performances, winning both the Medley and MSR events. The pipe corps won the MSR event with firsts from both judges, and the drum corps won with an AGL from judge Tom Kee. The Medley event was a bit less stellar for the pipe corps, getting a third and second from the piping judges, tying the Ulster Scottish pipe corps, but the drum corps again won with and AGL and the band earned first in ensemble, showing how much the new members are not only fitting into the band, but improving it. Onward and upward for MacMillan!

MSR: http://youtu.be/xBgM6IdvfQ0

Medley:  http://youtu.be/Mp_w-nbCrq4

Next up for the bands, we are playing the Sharpsburg, Maryland Memorial Day Parade on Saturday May 23. For our less experienced players, performances like this offer opportunities to mingle with the higher level musicians.  Mixing and mingling between competiton bands is part of the mission of MacMillan, to teach every player how to improve and evnetually move up between competitive groups. For any interested pipers, be sure to send us a message either on facebook or leave a comment right here! We always welcome new  members, even stark beginners!
Till next time, keep rooting for Big Mac!