August 13, 2006 Source: :
http://www.sfu.ca/mediapr/news_releases/archives/news08130601.htm Pipe bands first and second It was a first and a second for the Simon Fraser University pipe bands atthe World Pipe Band Championships in Scotland August 12.The junior Robert Malcolm Memorial pipe band placed first in the Grade 2 competition at Glasgow Green – and the famed senior SFU Pipe Band placedsecond in the prime Grade 1 event. The Robert Malcolm Memorial band (named for two members of the SFU Pipe Bandwho died in an automobile accident in 1993) has competed in the world championships four times. Bonnets flew into the air as the Robert Malcolm band heard the announcement of its win, including the Glengarry headgear of Pipe Major David Hilder and Pipe Sergeant Shaunna Hilder. Meanwhile, the senior SFU pipe band placed second to the Field Marshal Montgomery band from Northern Ireland and ahead of the defending world champions, the House of Edgar Shotts and Dykehead band from Scotland. The two SFU bands competed in an event that drew more than 200 bands and 8000 pipers to Scotland, from as far afield as Europe, Canada, the USA, Pakistan and New Zealand. It was the 60th world championships, held on a cloudy breezy day at Glasgow Green. The Grade 1 SFU Pipe Band had been trying for its fifth world title. It captured its first Grade 1 World Pipe Band Championship in August 1995, and repeated the win in 1996. In 1999, the band regained the World Championship title, winning the World Drum Corps Championship in the process. In 2001, the SFU Pipe Band won the World’s again, and also won the Australian Pipe Band Championship. The RMM band was formed in January 1994 to continue the development of talented and dedicated players, as Robert Barbulak and Malcolm Bokenfohr were. It began with 35 members, and has grown in the past 12 years to become one the largest band organizations of its kind in the world with bands in Grades2, 3, 4 and 5; plus a teaching program. The senior Grade 1 SFU Pipe Band, which was born 25 years ago, has a core of more than 30 players, and is led by Pipe Major Terry Lee, lead drummer J. Reid Maxwell, and Pipe Sergeant Jack Lee. The band plays each year at SFU convocation ceremonies, and at Highland games events in B.C., Washington and Oregon. It has produced nine recordings and two concert/documentary videos. Each year, more than 200 people from all across North America (and as far away as Denmark, Switzerland, Australia and Ireland) make the trip to the Silver Star Mountain resort near Vernon BC for the band's "Piping Hot Summer Drummer" learning program. —30—
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