By Amelia Willmer
Och aye the noo! Emu Vale can now lay claim to having one of the world’s best young bagpipers.
Nicholas McGahan, 19, has been selected, from hundreds of applicants world-wide, to be one of an elite 20 pipers in the Pipes and Drums at this year’s Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.
The audition process was arduous. Pipers from every corner of the globe were given the same three tunes to record on to YouTube.
The assessment and short-listing took six months.
“As I made it higher and higher on the list, in email after email, it became quite nerve-wracking,” Nicholas said.
“Then one night at 9.30pm I let out a scream worthy of Tam O’ Shanter which scared the life out of Mum and Dad. Yes! I had been selected.”
Nicholas’s parents, Lisa and Jack, were overjoyed for their talented son who will fly to Scotland on July 26 for a week of intensive rehearsals.
“We will start at 7am each day and work right through to 5pm,” Nicholas said.
“I won’t know what we are playing until June when they send us the music scores.”
The Tattoo, which runs from 4 August to 26 August, will be attended by the newly crowned King Charles whom Nicholas is hoping to have an opportunity to meet.
Nicholas’s parents and his girlfriend Mia Benson will fly to Scotland for the final week of the tattoo. His brother, Luke, who has just begun training in the RAAF, won’t be able to attend but will certainly be there in spirit.
“This is such a great honour,” said Nicholas, who was School Captain last year when he completed Grade 12 at Warwick’s Scots PGC College.
“I owe it all to one of the greatest teachers, the college bandmaster Sandy Dalzeil.
“Not only is he an excellent teacher but he is also a champion piper in his own right, one of the top in the world.
“When I originally joined the band I was going to do snare drums but Sandy saw my potential and encouraged me to swap to the bagpipes.
“Without him, I would never have achieved the level of skill I have now.”
Nicholas has deferred commencing university to concentrate on his music.
“Next year, I will start a biomedical degree at QUT,” he said, “but I need this Gap Year to focus on my music and to earn some money towards the costs of the Tattoo.
“They are paying for all my meals, accommodation and other expenses but I am required to pay my own airfares and the $3000 for the kilt and its accessories.
“So I am working in Warwick most days.”
So where does the laddie earn a “wee bawbee Scottish sixpence“?
Och aye, yae ken!
At that restaurant with the great Scottish name, McDonalds!
