About
Daniel is 20 years old and comes from Rothesay, on the Island of Bute. He is currently in his third year studying at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland on the BMus (Hons) Traditional Music - Piping degree course with first study Bagpipes with Willie McCallum, second study Piano with James Ross and related study Gaelic Song with Ishabel T. MacDonald.
Daniel began learning to play the chanter at the age of six under Iain MacDonald from Bute where he later progressed onto the bagpipes. It was at this point Daniel began to attend the National Piping Centre in Glasgow for lessons with the world-class tutors and continued to do so throughout his early years. He then took tuition from Donald Morrison, who lived on Bute at the time and introduced Daniel to the art of playing Piobaireachd. Following on from Donald, Daniel started receiving lessons from a relation of his, Willie Morrison, at the College of Piping in Glasgow. When Daniel entered his 6th year at school, he started to receive lessons from Donald MacPhee and these lessons were carried out via video conferencing facilities provided by Argyll & Bute Council. When he gained his place at the RCS in 2014, he started off having lessons with Roddy MacLeod, Finlay MacDonald and Stuart Samson. Now in his 3rd year, he receives tuition from Willie McCallum. Daniel has enormous respect for everyone who has assisted in his learning.
Daniel joined the Inveraray and District Novice Juvenile pipe band in the autumn of 2009 under the direction of Robert Stewart. After gaining 2nd place at the Worlds that year, the band gained promotion to the Juvenile grade for the next season. Daniel became the acting Pipe Major for the majority of the 2011 season following the sad passing of Robert Stewart. He then progressed through to the Grade 1 band that autumn and played in his first major championship in Grade 1 at 15 years old. Daniel rates the pre-worlds concert "Ascension" in 2013, the band's first major championship win at the European Championships in Forres in 2014, the bands 2nd places at the World Championships in 2014 & 2016 and the bands wins at the British and Scottish Championships in 2016 as the most notable in his pipe band career. Daniel was fortunate to be chosen to lead the bands entry to the International Quartet contest during Piping Live 2016 which the quartet went on to win for another year, something Daniel was delighted to have continued.
Daniel has been a member of the National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland since joining the Development Band in 2008 and progressing to the Senior Band for the 2009 “Dragon's Lair” concert. He has been on several overseas tours with the band including the William Kennedy Festival in Armagh and the Basel Christmas Tattoo in 2014 as well as playing in all the major concerts with the band. During the summer of 2014, Daniel was appointed Pipe Sergeant of the NYPBoS Senior Band alongside Gregor Norris. In February of 2017, after serving nearly 3 years as Pipe Sergeant, Daniel was appointed Pipe Major of the Senior band alongside fellow long time member, Iain Crawford. He was a playing member during the bands two most recent CD recordings, "Illumination" and soon to be released "Thunderstruck".
Outside of the pipe band scene Daniel has also had a successful solo piping career to date, being consistently placed at many of the major junior competitions in Scotland. His most notable solo piping prizes include the overall prize at the National Piping Centre Junior Competition in 2013, Junior Light Music at Inveraray Highland Games 2014, the Burgh Cup and both Junior MSR and Junior Piobaireachd at the Cowal Gathering in 2014. In the adults in 2016, Daniel won both 'C' Light Music events at Rosneath & Cowal and placed 1st in the March and 4th in the Strathspey&Reel at Inveraray Highland Games. This gained him a promotion to 'B' grade Light Music for 2017.
Daniel has various amounts of teaching experience to date having being included in the NYPBoS Outreach teaching team since being part of the project. As a pupil at the Strachur Summer School in Argyll for a few years he then began attending as a tutor there in 2014. For a period of three weeks in October 2016 then a period of two weeks in Feb/Mar 2017, Daniel has been a Piping Instructor at George Heriot's School in Edinburgh providing cover for Alasdair Henderson. This gave Daniel a huge amount of experience in a school environment which is something that he hopes to do as a career following on from the RCS. The job involved individual solo tuition, SQA exam preparation, starting beginners on the chanter and conduction school band practices. Daniel lead the Novice A band onto competition at the Scottish Schools Pipe Band Championship in March 2017, providing valuable experience of leading a youth performance. In February of 2017, Daniel also began teaching at the College of Piping and currently tutors on the Thursday evening classes.
Aside from pipe bands, solo piping and teaching, Daniel also regularly plays for Highland Dancing competitions. He was first taught how to play for dancers by Sandy Calder from Rothesay and then began playing for local Highland Dance teacher Anne McIlroy. He has played at many Highland Dancing events including the Cowal Gathering, Solway Championships, the BATD Championship in Paisley and the Bute Championship at the Bute Highland Games. Daniel also appears on the Scottish Official Board of Highland Dancing’s Piper’s list.
Below is a selection of some images of Daniel's achievements and experiences during the last few years: