Tutors to deliver the 2008workshop
This year's workshop teaching will be a combined effort between world class Australian tutors (including members of the World Champion Victoria Police Pipe Band) and two internationally respected tutors (one piper, one drummer). This year’s international tutors are Drew Duthart (side drummer) and John Cairns (piper), both from Toronto, Canada. They will teach throughout the workshop and also perform the recital at the Saturday night concert.

About the two international guest tutors
Drew Duthart and John Cairns have impressive reputations as performers, and both are highly sought after for recitals and workshops the world over. Their willingness (and keenness) to participate in this workshop and recital is an exciting opportunity not to be missed. Their performances at the Saturday evening concert will certainly be entertaining and are much anticipated.

Drew Duthart
A native of Scotland, Drew Duthart started learning drums under the instruction of his world famous father Alex Duthart, probably the most famous and influential pipe band drummer of all time. At age 14 Drew began playing with the grade one Shotts & Dykehead pipe band in Scotalnd. During the next five years he achieved every drum corps prize possible, also winning the World’s Juvenile Solo Drumming Championship.

After Shotts, Drew joined the British Caledonian Airways Pipe Band until moving to Ontario, Canada in 1986. There he was lead drummer of the Metro Toronto Police, helping win the North American Pipe Band Championship twice in the 1990s.

After a short hiatus from the pipe band world, Drew returned to play with the Peel Regional Police, and then the Scottish-Lion 78th Fraser Highlanders, becoming lead drummer in 2004. Under Drew’s leadership, the 78ths won Best Drum Corps at the 2007 World Pipe Band Championships.

John Cairns
Canadian piper John Cairns has won almost every major soloist prize in North America and Scotland. In 1999 he achieved the rarest of feats, becoming the 11th person in the history of piping to win “The double”: both Highland Society of London Gold Medals for solo piping, at Oban and Inverness, in the same year. He also won the prestigious Bratach Gorm in 2004.
As an instructor, John holds the internationally recognized Institute of Piping’s Senior Teacher’s Certificate. During his seventeen years in the Canadian Forces, he taught over ten thousand students in the Cadet Pipes and Drums Training Program, and developed a curriculum now available to pipers everywhere.
In 2000, John’s composition The Lament for the Unknown Soldier” was selected and performed during the dedication of Canada’s National War Memorial. John plays with the 78th Fraser Highlanders and his work is prominently featured in their 2003 concert extravaganza “Seanchaidh”.