John Hughes is a Virginia-based piper who joined MacMillan in 2022. As the story goes, John’s piping journey began many years ago (circa 1980) when, as a wee lad, he and his father took up the pipes and played together in the Salt Lake (UT) Scots Pipe Band.

After a hiatus for college, career, and family, John resumed his piping career in earnest in 2005 when his daughter began Highland dance and needed a piper who could play a decent Strathspey and keep consistent tempos. That eventually led to his becoming a fixture on the dance-piping circuit in the mid-Atlantic region for the past 15 years.

John’s rededication to piping was also motivated by his son’s taking up the pipes in 2008 and the opportunities that has given them to play together over the years as the Hughes family’s second generation of father-son pipers, including on occasion with the City of Washington Pipe Band, with whom John played from 2012 through 2016.