Steven McWhirter is a pipe band drummer from Northern Ireland. He has won multiple World Championship titles as a solo performer and as part of band. He is the lead drummer for the

Inveraray & District Pipe Band Inveraray and District Pipe Band is a Grade 1 pipe band based in Inveraray, Scotland. History Stuart Liddell, a native of Argyll and one of the world's top solo players began coaching youngsters at Inveraray Primary School in 2003, and register ...

Life

McWhirter was born in

Ballymena Ballymena ( ; from , meaning 'the middle townland') is a town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 31,205 people at the 2021 United Kingdom census, making it the List of localities in Northern Ireland by population, seven ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

, in 1983.

Career

Band career

He joined the Cullybackey Pipe Band in Northern Ireland in 1994, and also played with the Warrnambool & District Pipe Band in Australia. When he joined Cullybackey he played the

tenor drum A tenor drum is a membranophone without a snare. There are several types of tenor drums. Early music Early music tenor drums, or long drums, are cylindrical membranophone without snare used in Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque music. They cons ...

, before moving on to play the

snare SNARE proteins – "Soluble NSF attachment protein, SNAP REceptors" – are a large protein family consisting of at least 24 members in yeasts and more than 60 members in mammalian and plant cells. The primary role of SNARE proteins is to m ...

. Cullybackey won the Grade 2 World Championships in 2002, and J. Reid Maxwell invited him to join the

Simon Fraser University Pipe Band The Simon Fraser University Pipe Band is a grade one pipe band affiliated with Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. It is led by pipe major Alan Bevan and leading drummer J. Reid Maxwell. History The Simon Fraser Univer ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

. He played with Simon Fraser University every summer until 2008, winning the Grade 1 World Drum Corps Championship in 2004 and 2008, as well as the overall World Pipe Band Championships in 2008. In 2008 he moved to Scotland to join the

as leading drummer. Inveraray won all five major championships in Grade 2 in 2009, and were promoted to Grade 1 for 2010. In 2014, Inveraray won its first Major at the European Championships, held in

Forres Forres (; ) is a town and former royal burgh in the north of Scotland on the County of Moray, Moray coast, approximately northeast of Inverness and west of Elgin, Moray, Elgin. Forres has been a winner of the Scotland in Bloom award on several ...

Solo career

McWhirter won the under-15 World Solo Championships in 1997 and 1998, and the World Solo Drumming Championships in 2006, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2024. He currently holds the record for most consecutive World Solo Drumming Championship wins. He has taught at schools, including

Dollar Academy Dollar Academy is a 5–18 Private schools in the United Kingdom, private co-educational day and boarding school for boys and girls in Scotland. The open campus occupies a site in the centre of Dollar, Clackmannanshire, at the foot of the Ochil ...

an
The Edinburgh Academy

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:McWhirter, Steven 1983 births Living people Male drummers from Northern Ireland Pipe band drummers People from Ballymena 21st-century drummers from Northern Ireland 21st-century male musicians from Northern Ireland Musicians from County Antrim 20th-century drummers from Northern Ireland 20th-century male musicians from Northern Ireland