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 registere ...

Life

McWhirter was born in

Ballymena Ballymena ( ; from ga, an Baile Meánach , meaning 'the middle townland') is a town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is part of the Borough of Mid and East Antrim. The town is built on land given to the Adair family by King Charles I i ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

, 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, before moving on to play the

snare SNARE proteins – " SNAP REceptor" – are a large protein family consisting of at least 24 members in yeasts, more than 60 members in mammalian cells, and some numbers in plants. The primary role of SNARE proteins is to mediate vesicle fu ...

. 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 Uni ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

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

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 and 2019. He currently holds the record for most consecutive World Solo Drumming Championship wins. He has taught at schools, including Dollar Academy an
The Edinburgh Academy

References

External links

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