The BCPA Annual Dinner and the final round of the Professional Knock-Out Piping and Drumming contests were held at the United Scottish Cultural Centre in Vancouver. More that 200 people were in attendance for an excellent evening of music, food, and camaraderie.

Adding yet another title to his most impressive list - Master of Ceremonies Angus Macpherson was informative, efficient and entertaining. From his piping and BCPA trivia quizzes (this was how the table order for buffet positions was decided... that was much fun), to the informative, interesting, and even entertaining manner in which he introduced the competitors, this was an excellent  MC job performed by Angus.

I wonder.. which is higher on the list.. PM, MC or PP? (Angus is also a Past President of the Association, a current Board member, a Pipe Major, a past Editor of the Newsletter, and.... He does A LOT for piping)

One lasting memory from MC Angus will be a short comment, during the formal introduction of eventual piping winner Andrew Bonar.  Noting that Andrew was, in the real world, an air traffic controller, Angus commented that this was "a little frightening".  Meant and taken in good fun, this was the style of the evening. (good fun)

This was a very full evening which included, in addition to the Knock Out finals, performances by winter mini gathering winners of Grade 1 solos - Rob Bruce (piping) and Grant Maxwell (drumming), and awards presented to each of the mini gathering aggregate winners.

Pipers in the final round were Alan Bevan, Andrew Bonar, Jori Chisholm,  and Colin Gemmell.  Winner of the final round, and a trip to compete in Ontario was Andrew Bonar. (Alan was second)

Drummers in the final round were Aaran Campbell, Kristen Coulson, and Andre Tessier.  Winner of the final round, and a trip to Chicago to compete in the John Kirkwood Senior Memorial Contest was Andrew Tessier.

Piping judges were Peter Aumonier, Jack Cairney, and Jack Lee.

Drumming judges were John Fisher, Reid Maxwell, and Karen Perry.

There will be more to come to the BCPA web site from this evening..

Photos - In a short time (when I get the film back) we will share the more interesting (I hope there are some) photos on the BCPA web site. 

Video / Audio - I was a recording fool this evening, taking more than 60 minutes of video (shot complete video of all of the competitors' performances)  The plan is to create video and audio files, and share them on the BCPA web site.  This may take some time -  for the conversion / creation of the files, and for review by the competitors (we will only share files with approval of the competitors)