Andrew Carlisle

Artist Lecturer in Bagpipe
Director of Piping, CMU

Bio

Andrew Carlisle is originally from Ballygowan, Northern Ireland and joined the School of Music faculty in 2010.

Andrew is in constant demand as a performer, instructor, and adjudicator throughout the world. He has performed in over twenty countries, across four continents; most notably at The White House in 2008, and in front of 50,000 people at the Oz Stadium in Sydney, Australia in 2010.

He is one of the world’s leading solo pipers and has won numerous prestigious awards including:

The Gillies Cup for Piobaireachd at London, UK (one of the most coveted prizes in solo piping)

The A Grade Strathspey and Reel at The Argyllshire Gathering, Oban, Scotland

The A Grade Piobaireachd and Overall at The Cowal Highland Gathering, Dunoon, Scotland

The US Gold Medal for both Piobaireachd and Light Music at Kansas City, Missouri

The Metro Cup Light Music Medley Champion at Newark, New Jersey

Five United States Piping Foundation Championship wins at Newark, Delaware

The Macallan Trophy on three occasions at Lorient, Brittany, France

The William Livingstone Memorial at Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

The Toronto Indoor Gathering, Toronto, Canada

The Gordon Duncan Memorial on two occasions at Glasgow, Scotland

The British Army Championships at Edinburgh, Scotland

And three All-Ireland titles at Senior level.

 

For eighteen years, Andrew has been an active member of the world renowned Field Marshal Montgomery Pipe Band, sharing in the success of over forty-five major championship wins, including nine World Pipe Band Championship wins. He has been featured as a soloist on the band’s ‘Re:Charged’ and ‘Impact’ albums.

Since 2012, Andrew has been the Artistic Director, Pipe Major and Senior Arranger for the annual Virginia International Tattoo; a production involving 900 performers held eight times each April in the 8,000 seat Scope Arena in Norfolk, Virginia.

Andrew has been a fully qualified adjudicator for solo piping and pipe bands with the Eastern United States Pipe Band Association since 2010.

Andrew was the featured artist in a one hour television program recorded by the BBC in 2016 entitled ‘The Castle Session’ performing the Great Highland Bagpipe, Scottish Border Pipes, Scottish Smallpipes, low whistle and penny whistle.

Since arriving in 2010, Andrew has transformed the Carnegie Mellon University Pipes and Drums into one of the leading pipe bands in the United States. In 2019 the band were crowned American Pipe Band Champions at Norfolk, Virginia winning both the traditional March, Strathspey and Reel and contemporary Medley Selection categories.

 

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