THE 2009 JUDGE

We are pleased and honored to have Bob Worrall adjudicate the first ever Silver Cap Competition. His previous accomplishments and accreditations will be a contribution to the Silver Cap, and will help to place this competition as one of the premier solo competitions in the world.
 
Bob Worrall is one of North America’s leading teachers, adjudicators and performers. Bob is a respected composer, having published two collections of bagpipe music, and also having compositions in a large number of other collections. He is featured on three solo piping recordings and is a member of the folk group “Scantily Plaid”.

After a piping career with a number of Ontario’s leading pipe bands, including the City of Toronto Pipe Band and the General Motors Pipe Band, Bob retired from competitive piping in 1983. His solo accomplishments were extensive, both in North America and Scotland. He won the North American Professional Championship an unprecedented 7 times and the Ontario Professional Championship Supreme title for 12 of his 13 years in the professional class. He was also the 1977 winner of the March and Strathspey/Reel events in Inverness. He was a pupil of Bill Millar, Willie Connell and John Wilson.

A member of all North American and the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association’s judging panels, Bob has been selected to judge the World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow on eleven occasions. For the last three years he has been the colour commentator for the BBC’s broadcast of the World Pipe Band Championships. He was added to the Piobaireachd Society’s Senior Judges list and in November, 2000, became the first non U.K. adjudicator to judge a major U.K. solo event when he was selected to adjudicate the Bratach Gorm in London, England. He has adjudicated the Macallan/MacCrimmon solo piping event in Brittany on ten occasions. He has adjudicated the New Zealand, Australian, and South African National Championships. He has also been a solo adjudicator at both the Cowal and Argyllshire Gatherings.

Bob was the senior instructor at the Gaelic College in Cape Breton for 15 years. Recently, he has been taking on a number of new summer school assignments, including Kingston, Ontario; Washington State; Vancouver Island; Uruguay; and, South Africa. He has also been a regular performer and adjudicator at the Lorient Celtic Festival in Brittany, France. His weekend workshops and recitals provide him with a schedule that has him booked months in advance and have taken him to virtually all of the Canadian provinces and 36 U.S. States.