Simon Fraser University Pipe Band

Having regained the title of World Pipe Band Champions on August 16, 2008 on Glasgow Green in Scotland, the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band confirmed its status as one of the top pipe bands in the World. This has rarely been in doubt over the last two decades, either on the performance stage or on the competition field.

Led by Pipe Major Terry Lee and Lead Drummer J. Reid Maxwell, the band consists of a talented core of over forty players. The band won its first major prize, the Grade 1 North American Championship, in 1982. In August 1995 at Glasgow, Scotland, the band captured the ultimate prize on the globe, the Grade 1 World Pipe Band Championship. A year later, the band returned to Scotland and captured the title again, becoming the first pipe band from outside the United Kingdom to win the World Championship more than once. To date, the band has won the World Championships a total of five times.

The band has produced nine albums, two concert documentary videos, and appeared on many BBC TV and Radio Scotland broadcasts. In 1998, the band recorded “Live at Carnegie Hall”, becoming the first pipe band to perform at this prestigious venue. “Down Under—Live at the Sydney Opera House” was recorded in 2001, at the culmination of a sub-equatorial tour. Most recently, the band recorded a pair of albums at the university, entitled “On Home Ground Vol. 1 and 2”. Plans are in the works to record again in 2009.

Not afraid to push the boundaries, the band routinely performs with a variety of musicians along with the usual compliment of bagpipers and drummers. The result is the sound of the great highland bagpipe being pushed to its limits, and of a highly polished machine flexing its muscle.

The SFU Pipe Band has been profiled internationally on CNN and BBC, nationally on CBC Newsworld, CBC Radio, and CTV, and has been featured on numerous occasions on Vancouver television and radio stations. The band also regularly participates in University convocation ceremonies, corporate events, Remembrance Day ceremonies and other civic events in the Vancouver area. In September 1999, Terry Lee and Jack Lee each received the Meritorious Service Medal from the Governor General of Canada for their contributions to piping, culture and youth development.

With the recent win at the World Championships, the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band once again asserts that it is one of the great pipe bands in the world, and one of Canada’s greatest musical ambassadors.