August 20, 2026
Provided image/Ulster Scottish Pipe Band
The Ulster Scottish Pipe Band started in 1922. Now, the Warminster bagpiping group is poised to hit the premier competition level.
Eric Ouellette spends most of his week working as a medical device quality assurance engineer. But last weekend, he led a Warminster-based bagpipe band to victory at the World Pipe Band Championships in Scotland. Returning to pharma business as usual two days later was a bit of a head trip.
"It's a weird thing, because you get back to the office on Tuesday morning and you're like, 'Yeah, we won the worlds,' and they're like, 'Oh, cool. That's great,'" Ouellette, the band's pipe major, said with a laugh. "It's like, no this is a big deal, man."
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The Ulster Scottish Pipe Band took the top prize in the Grade 2 competition at the annual championship Saturday in Glasgow, along with the trophy for best drum corps. The group is only the sixth from the United States to achieve this distinction since the contest began in 1947 — and the win puts the band one step closer to qualifying for Grade 1, the highest tier awarded by the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association.
Highlights from the championship will air Thursday night on the BBC. But for those without a cable box, Ouellette offered a recap. The band advanced out of a qualifying event Friday with its march, strathspey and reel, a traditional set of tunes that show off technical skill. Then, the players started Saturday morning with a medley, which Ouellette described as "more freeform in terms of orchestration." The final event was another march, strathspey and reel, followed by the prize ceremony.
The Ulster Scottish Pipe Band ultimately beat out 11 other finalists from Seattle, Scotland, Canada, France, New Zealand, Ireland and Australia for the Grade 2 title. After claiming their trophies, the band marched off the field following the Grade 1 champions, Canada's Simon Fraser University Pipe Band. Ouellette received another prize from a spectator on the sidelines; Richard Parkes, the winningest pipe major in world championship history, reached out to shake his hand.
"This is all competitive and I am competitive and I love to win, but mostly I like to feel really good about how we played," Ouellette said.
The win is the culmination of a four-year run, during which the group claimed top honors at the North American Pipe Band Championships three times and won the European Championships once. They also placed third at the world competition last year.
John Hall formed the Ulster Scottish Pipe Band — originally, the Philadelphia Ulster Pipe Band — in 1922 after immigrating to Pennsylvania from Northern Ireland. His family has kept the group alive over the ensuing century. Hall's granddaughter Traci Cooper currently manages the band, while her son Derek leads the drum corps. His wife Danielle and cousins Emily Knudsen and Maddison Sprague are also drummers.
The Ulster Scottish Pipe Band, a century-old musical group based in Warminster, also took the top drumming prize at the World Pipe Band Championships.
"Upon immigrating to the United States in the early 1920s, my grandfather gathered local Scotch-Irish immigrants to form the band as a way to carry on the music and culture from the old country," Traci Cooper said in a statement. "After my father took over the band in 1962, the band became more deeply involved in the competitive circuit.
"He would have been happy just to know the band continued on in his absence. But he never could have imagined the band would have attained this level of success. He would have been so incredibly proud."
Ouellette is not part of this family tree, nor does he have much Scottish ancestry. But the pipes were in his blood, too. He picked them up at the age of 9, following in the footsteps of his grandfather and aunts. His mother was also a snare drummer, while his sisters took up Highland dancing.
Before he joined the Ulster Scottish Pipe Band a decade ago, he routinely flew into Scotland to perform in the Inveraray and District Pipe Band with Derek and Danielle Cooper. The Grade 1 group scored multiple world championships, but eventually Ouellette, the Coopers and another member, Kegan Sheehan, decided to shift their focus. They wanted to boost the Ulster Scottish Pipe Band out of the mid-tiers and into the big leagues. After much recruitment and rehearsal — the group practices each month at the Hunter Soccer Club in Glenside — they achieved Grade 2 in 2022.
Now, with the latest title, the Ulster Scottish Pipe Band is poised to hit the premier Grade 1 level. The group likely will have its answer next month, when the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association meets to discuss any shifts in grading. Ouellette could see the tides turning in either direction. He's more concerned with keeping the band — whose members are now located in Scotland, Canada and other parts of the United States, too — together. Ouellette himself moved from Point Breeze to upstate New York about two years ago.
"It's a very difficult thing for North American pipe bands — I'll include Canadians in that, too — to maintain a pipe band of that standard," he said. "The Scottish school system for the last 20-odd years has had a really outstanding program in developing young pipers and drummers. And at this point, it's paying massive dividends in the Grade 1 pipe band scene.
"We just don't have the same sort of critical mass in the U.S. It's a really difficult thing to maintain. I'm most focused on sustainability for the band and retention of our players who we've put so much work into developing and growing with. What I'm most focused on is, whatever the outcome of those grading discussions, making sure that the band remains as cohesive as it is currently."
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