The Buffalo Caledonian Pipe Band was formed in 1958 as a reorganization of the successful Gordon Highlanders pipe band. Over the past 64 years, the band has experienced many changes: drummers have become pipers, members have moved away, moved on, and sadly, some have passed away.
The band is a family-based organization with brothers, cousins, nephews, husbands and wives, sons and daughters all in the band together.
The band’s commitment to teaching has produced a solid core of pipers and drummers. Also, many players have gone on to play at the highest levels in both piping and drumming, including the World Championships in Scotland.
The band performs 15-20 engagements a year, including local parades, concerts, highland gatherings, as well as pipe band competitions in Ontario and the Northeastern United States.
Caledonian Pipes and Drums of Buffalo is proud to be an independent, self-sustaining organization, and is a registered not-for-profit organization.
The Buffalo Caledonian Pipes and Drums was formed in 1958 under the leadership of Pipe Major Angus Macleod. Over the next decades the band became a fixture at local parades, community events and social functions. Within twenty years the band grew to over 29 pipers, performing in parades, regional Highland Tatoos and even performed for a President of the United States.
Though originally the majority of members were of highland descent the band quickly grew to include people from all ethnicities and walks of life. The band has always held the teaching of the bagpipes and highland drums as a major component of their growth and identity.
Players, trained by the band, have gone on to be members of Grade 1 bands performing in the World Championships in Scotland, become adjudicators in the Pipe Band Association as well as forming new bands, with the same Esprit de corps, in their transplanted areas.
These members themselves have taught others and the spirit of the Buffalo Caledonian Pipe Band can be found throughout the Buffalo Niagara Region.
During the past two decades the band has striven to become a competition band in Grade 4 and 5, establishing themselves as award winners at highland games, playing in the Scottish World Championships as well as being judged as Northeastern Champions.
This competition status has not stopped the bands original repertoire of local parades and civic functions, nor diminished their commitment to teaching the great instruments of the Scottish Isles.
The close of the 65th Anniversary of the band sees its membership looking forward to new areas of growth and opportunity, growing the band in numbers and ability and teaching more students and celebrating the bagpipe and drums with all in our area for years to come.
- New york