01-08-2025
Carnegie Mellon going to World Pipe Band Championships
Carnegie Mellon is going to the World Pipe Band Championships in Scotland.
It's the first time the university's Pipes and Drums band will compete on the international stage, going to the European Pipe Band Championships in Perth on Aug. 9 and the world championships in Glasgow on Aug. 15.
CMU says it's home to the world's first undergraduate degree in bagpipe performance. The university traces its Scottish roots back to founder Andrew Carnegie.
Bagpipe-playing twins Alexandra and Elizabeth Knox, who graduated in May, will be among those representing the Pipes and Drums band abroad. They learned the bagpipes from their father, also a CMU alum.
The Pipes and Drums band, which was founded in 1939, is fresh off wins from the Chicago Highland Games and the American Pipe Band Championships in Norfolk, Virginia.
The world championships will be attended by 35,000 people in person, and about 500,000 are expected to watch the broadcast on the BBC.
"I think for 99% of them, going this year will be their first time ever — not only going to the world championship, but even going to Scotland — so it's a big opportunity. It's exciting to share that with them," Andrew Carlisle, the director of piping, said in a quote on CMU's website.
The Knox twins said everyone in the band — from students to staff to alumni — has put in the work to get them to the competition.
"You can really hear it in kind of the sound as everyone gets geared up for this competition," Alexandra Knox said on CMU's website. "All the effort really shows. Regardless of how the band does at this competition, I'm super proud of how far everyone has come in the past couple years."
