The judges will be Michael Grey of Ontario and Bruce Gandy of Nova Scotia.

The ACPBA Piobaireachd Challenge was instituted by the NSPPBA in 1990, following a five-year program of Piobaireachd workshops held in Antigonish and directed by Dr. Angus MacDonald of Glenuig, Scotland, then living in Cape Breton.

At that time, there were scarcely a handful of piobaireachd players in all of Atlantic Canada, and many of those knew only the tunes they competed with year after year. By adopting the set tunes for the medal competitions in Scotland, pipers were encouraged to learn new tunes each year, thus building a much larger repertoire and developing a greater understanding and love of the music.

Over the years, the number of events offered grew until the full range of grades were covered: the Gold Medal Challenge for the Professional players, the Silver Medal Challenge for Grade 1, the Nickel Medal Challenge for Grade 2, the Bronze Medal Challenge for Grade 3, the Copper Medal Challenge for Grade 4 and the Pewter Medal Challenge for the novice group, Grade 5.

For the past several years, the event has been co-sponsored by the Antigonish Highland Society and the Atlantic Canada Pipe Band Association and hosted on behalf of the two sponsoring groups by the Piobaireachd Society of Antigonish.

The deadline for entries for the 2006 ACPBA Piobaireachd Challenge is May 5th. See the entry form for further details. See photographs of the 2006 ACPBA Piobaireachd Challenge winners.