Bruce Gandy

Bruce Gandy grew up in Victoria, British Columbia, where his father was pipe-major of the local Canadian Scottish Regiment pipe band, and he learned to play from notable pipers James W. Troy and Hal Senyk.

After several years in the City of Victoria Pipe Band, Gandy moved to Ontario, where he married into the piping Rollo family, and established himself as a top solo and band competitor as a member of the 1987 World Champion 78th Fraser Highlanders.

From the Toronto area, Gandy moved to Prince Edward Island to became Head Piping Instructor at the College of Piping and Celtic Performing Arts, and later he took the position of Piping Instructor at the Halifax Citadel, where he remains today.

For the last 40 years, Gandy has been one of the top players on the world stage, winning the Gold Medals for piobaireachd (the ancient classical music of the Great Highland Bagpipe) at The Northern Meeting (Inverness) and the Argyllshire Gathering (Oban), the Bratach Gorm (Blue Banner) in London, The Silver Star for Former Winners March, Strathspey and Reel and having been runner-up at the Glenfiddich Championships.

Gandy has released four books of bagpipe music dating back to 1989. With over 200 compositions published, Bruce is one of the world’s most prolific bagpipe composers. Bruce’s tunes can be heard from all four corners of the earth.

In 2017, the world’s leading piping and drumming publication Pipes|Drums ranked Gandy number four of the fifteen greatest living Canadian pipers of all time. The same publication named Gandy “World Piper of the Year” in 2003, 2018 and 2020.

Ever grateful for the teaching, guidance and friendships made through piping over the years, in 2011 Gandy founded the Bruce Gandy Bagpiping Development Society, soon to be renamed The Gandy Bagpiping Foundation. This small society has grown substantially over the years and now provides tuition scholarships to deserving pipers, in an effort to keep the music and learning alive in Canada.

As the world suffered through the global pandemic, Gandy remained highly visible releasing his first non-fiction book Performance: Delivering Your Own Awesome in the fall of 2020. Treading on the footsteps of The Inner Game of Music, Gandy presents a performance preparation and delivery guide intended specifically for bagpipers but applicable to all performance artists.

A highly sought-after music educator, Gandy has been responsible for the development of many bagpipers from Nova Scotia and around the globe including his son Alex who is also one of the top bagpipe performance artists in the world. In 2018, both were the first father and son to compete at the Glenfiddich Solo Piping Championship, the Superbowl of solo piping.