Meet the Players
2025 Boney Music Memorial Invitational Competition & Recital, March 15, 2025, Seaforth Armoury, 1650 Burrard Street, Vancouver B.C. Doors open at 6:30pm.
Zephan Knichel originally from Edmonton and a former member of the Alberta Caledonia Pipe Band, has been a grade one band player since 2003. He is currently in his eleventh season as a member of the world-renowned Simon Fraser University Pipe Band. Zephan also competes as a soloist all over North America and in Scotland. Some highlights of his 2024 season include:
- 2nd in the BCPA Grand Aggregate
- Winning the Open Piobaireachd at the BCPA Annual Gathering and the Pacific Northwest Highland Games
- Winning the Aggregate at the Bellingham Highland Games
- Winning the overall at the Glen Isla Highland Games
- 3rd in the “B” March at the Argyllshire Gathering and 4th in the “B” Hornpipe/Jig at the Northern Meeting
Zephan currently lives in Lynnwood, WA with his wife Samantha. When he’s not piping, he is usually doing something piping related! He teaches a Bagpipes for Beginners program Tuesdays and Thursdays at CAF in Mount Vernon, WA. Also he teaches a weekly online smallpipe class for Dojo University at 3pm PST every Monday. For leisure, he and his wife enjoy hiking, traveling, and quiet nights at home watching movies, shows or playing video games. “We are still a couple of Nintendo Kids.”
Cameron Bonar is 17 years old and lives in Surrey British Columbia and will be graduating High School this June. He has spent his entire life studying, playing, performing, and competing bagpipes, but also loves other forms of music with the incorporation of various instruments.
Cameron started his piping career at the age of 6 with his father Andrew Bonar. When Cameron was 9 years old, he started taking lessons from Jack Lee who became his main instructor, mentor and influence in piping and in life. He started as a band member of the Robert Malcolm Memorial Pipe Band and now is a part of the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band. Cameron plays various solo events across the world each year, some of Cameron’s recent accomplishments include:
- winning pipe idol 2023
- winning the intermediate MSR at Oban in 2023 qualifying him for the B grade light music, which he won the B march and placed second in the B strathspey reel in 2024
- Winter Storm success: 2020 winning both grade 2 events, 2023 winning both grade 1 events, 2024 winning both silver medal events, and more recently, 2025 he placed second in the gold medal MSR
- 3rd overall in the 2024 BCPA Grand Aggregate
This event is so special to Cameron because of course, Andrew Bonar was his father. He was Cameron’s first mentor and influence in the piping world and started Cameron off on his lifetime of bagpipes. Cameron grew up attending the contest as a spectator, watching his idols compete year after year and is so blessed and excited to have the opportunity to play alongside them this year.
Craig Sutherland hails from Crieff, Scotland. He originally played with and was the Pipe Sergeant of the Vale of Atholl Pipe Band and joined Simon Fraser University Pipe Band in 2015. Craig has recently relocated from Scotland to Vancouver, BC and lives with his Fiancee Tori Killoran, who is also a member of the band. They will be married in three months. He works as an electrical engineer in the energy industry. Some piping Highlights from 2024:
- Winner of the Wheel of Fortune Invitational Competition
- Winner of the first Gordon Duncan Memorial Competition at the Skagit Valley Highland Games
- Winner of the Highland Society of London’s Gold Medal at the Northern Meeting
- 4th place at the Former Winners March Strathspey and Reel competition at the Northern Meeting
- Played at this years Glenfiddich Invitational Piping Competition – alongside Alan Bevan also from SFU.
Craig had a very busy year travelling – three times to Vancouver and USA to play with SFU. He also travels for leisure and had wonderful adventures this past year in, Greece, Dubai, Vietnam, Singapore, and Thailand.
Nick Hudson teaches piping at St. Thomas’ Episcopal School in Houston, Texas. He holds a BFA in Music Performance from Carnegie-Mellon University, where he studied under Alasdair Gillies and Jimmy McIntosh. He currently receives tuition from Mike Cusack.
Nick’s solo piping highlights include the Clasp, Gold Medal, A MSR, B MSR, and Overall Quaich at the Northern Meeting; 3rd Overall at the Glenfiddich; the Silver Medal at the Argyllshire Gathering; the London Ram’s Head Snuff Mull for A-Grade Piobaireachd; twice the Overall A-Grade Winner at the SPSL Contest in London; the Braemar Gold Medal; the Piobaireachd Society Gold Medal (Canada); the US Piping Foundation Overall, Piobaireachd, and MSR on multiple occasions; the Gold Medal MSR at Winter Storm; the Kemble Star for Marches and Peter MacFarquhar Star for Strathspeys & Reels at Skye Gathering in Portree; overall winner of The Livingstone Invitational; and overall winner of The Metro Cup. Nick has recorded a BBC “Pipeline” session and has played at the Piobaireachd Society’s annual recital in Edinburgh, and the Capt—John MacLellan Memorial Medal Competition-Recital in Edinburgh.
Aside from piping, Nick enjoys bicycling and has cycled coast-to-coast across the United States. He resides in Houston with his wife, Amanda, and their son, Alan.
Thank you for your generosity and support!
The British Columbia Pipers’ Association and the Bonar family
To watch real time livestreaming of the event, go to https://www.facebook.com/bcpipers
The livestream will appear at the top of the Facebook page starting at 6:45 pm Pacific Time (20 minutes before the official programme starts)
To watch delayed real time high resolution videos of each performance, go to https://www.youtube.com/bcpipersassociation
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