PS 25 – 2025 Scottish Performing Arts Classic – Piobaireachd

The 2025 Joseph McDonald Memorial Prize for Piobaireachd Piobaireachd or ceòl mòr is an artistic music genre associated primarily with the Scottish Highlands that is characterised by extended compositions with a melodic theme and elaborate formal variations. Strictly meaning ‘piping’ in Scottish Gaelic, piobaireachd has for some four centuries been the classical music of the great Highland bagpipe. A more general term is Scottish Gaelic: ceòl mòr meaning the ‘great music’ (to distinguish this complex extended art-music from the more popular Scottish music such as dances, reels, marches, and strathspeys, which are called ceòl beag or ‘little music’). Four of the finest pipers in the world have been invited to compete at the Classic. Three of the competitors have already won the Clasp to the Gold Medal at the Northern Meeting in Scotland, thought to be the premium prize in the world for piping. www.burnscharleston.com