Save the Date for the next Nicol-Brown!
October 10–11, 2025
The Nicol-Brown Contest is held annually on the Saturday before Columbus Day / Canadian Thanksgiving.
The 42nd Nicol-Brown Amateur Invitational Contest will be held on Saturday, October 11, 2025 at St. Mark Presbyterian Church in Rockville, Maryland, co-sponsored again with the wonderful people of the Institute of Musical Traditions. The weekend’s events will begin with a judges’ recital on Friday evening, October 10, an outstanding opportunity to listen to performances from two of the world’s premier pipers.
View a pdf copy of the 2024 program, and watch this space for the 2025 program.
Judges’ Recital
Friday, October 10, 2025
Doors will open at 7:00 pm for a 7:30 concert.
St. Mark Presbyterian Church
10701 Old Georgetown Road
Rockville, Maryland 20852
The 2025 Nicol-Brown Judges
Willie McCallum (Bearsden, Scotland)
Alastair Lee (Port Coquitlam, British Columbia)
FREE ADMISSION, thanks to the EUSPBA, The Piobaireachd Society, and other generous donors. Your donations are always welcome at the door or online for the benefit of the Nicol-Brown. Bring young pipers and support the future of piping.
Willie McCallum is legendary in the piping world, with a remarkable career in solo piping, pipe bands, and teaching. Willie’s solo piping results are astounding, including a breathtaking nine Glenfiddich Championships. In December of 2023, Willie was inducted into the Scots Traditional Music Hall of Fame in recognition of his years of excellence as a musical performer. Willie is equally well-known for his generosity and brilliance as a teacher—in private lessons, at piping schools around the world, and as the Piping Degree Tutor at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Willie sells his own McCallum (McC²) solo pipe chanter, his new Kintyre practice chanter, and he is an agent and product consultant for McCallum Bagpipes Ltd. He is also a consultant to Bannatyne Ltd, adding his expertise to pipe bag design. Willie and his wife, Christine, live in Bearsden, Scotland.
Alastair Lee is a top solo competitor in Canada, U.S.A., and Scotland. In January of 2025, he won the Gold Medal Ceol Beag Championship and the Overall Aggregate at Winter Storm in Kansas City, Missouri. In 2024, he took home the top prizes in Open Piping at the BC Pipers’ Annual Gathering and was the BCPA overall Grand Aggregate winner. His dad, Terry Lee, is his tutor. In Scotland, Alastair plays in the Former Winners’ MSR at Oban as well as the Gold Medal for Piobaireachd at Oban and Inverness. He pipes for Highland Dancing on a regular basis and is sought after in Canada and the U.S.A. Not only is he a well-established piper on the competitive circuit, Alastair is also a multi-talented musician. He plays the piano, guitar, and accordion and enjoys composing and creating musical arrangements. Alastair started his pipe band career with the Robert Malcolm Memorial Pipe Band, and has been a member of the world-renowned Simon Fraser University Pipe Band since 2008. In concerts with the band, Alastair can be seen playing both pipes and keyboards, including last year in August at the largest Pre-Worlds concert at the SEC Armadillo, in Glasgow Scotland. Alastair continues to give back to the Robert Malcolm Memorial Organization as the instructor for the grade 4 band. He also enjoys being a solo piping instructor, workshop instructor, and judge. Alastair graduated with honours in 2013 from the Art Institute of Vancouver in professional sound engineering. He currently works full-time at the well-known Scottish importing firm, Tartantown Ltd., in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia as a bagpipe technician, shipper and sales associate.
Alastair competed in the 2007 Nicol-Brown Invitational, winning the Piobaireachd, the MSR, and the Overall Championship.
The 2025 Nicol-Brown Competition
Saturday, October 11
St. Mark Presbyterian Church
10701 Old Georgetown Road
Rockville, Maryland 20852
9:30 am to 6:30 pm
FREE ADMISSION with donations gratefully accepted for the benefit of the Nicol-Brown.
Ten of the finest Amateur pipers from across North America will earn invitations this season to play in an elite solo competition consisting of three events: 6/8 Marches, Piobaireachd and MSR. The contest is dedicated annually to the memory of Robert U. Brown and Robert B. Nicol, the Masters of Piobaireachd.
Throwback to the 2020 and 2021 CONCERTS
The 2020 and 2021 virtual concerts are still available for free on YouTube for hours of great listening!
The 2021 concert was created with thanks to Roddy MacLeod, Bob Worrall, Jenny Hazzard, and Nick Hudson.
The 2020 concert was created with thanks to Jack Taylor, Sarah Muir, Patrick Molard, and Matt MacIsaac.
Special thanks to Eric Ouellette, Andrew Douglas, and The Piper’s Dojo for their work creating the videos and for their many years of support of the Nicol-Brown and its mission of encouraging amateur piping.
Donations to the Nicol-Brown are always welcome.
