The Toronto Police Pipe Band is a grade one pipe band based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The band was originally formed for local parades and events, and was later used for recruiting drives in World Wars I and II. In the 1970s, the band began competing internationally, and has had considerable success over the years. It won the Grade One North American Championship at the Glengarry Highland Games in 2004. The band had a very successful season in 2006, winning the American, Canadian and North American Championships.
The 2007 and 2008 seasons have proven to be integral in the band's current attention in the piping community; after losing much of the pipe corps and regaining old players in '07 the band competed with an innovative and non-traditional medley titled "Variations on a Theme of Good Intentions" which went against the traditional medley composition as the players performed a suite of a theme rather than separate tunes. The set was composed for pipes by Michael Grey, the band's Pipe Sergeant. The band competed with a different medley in the 2009 season, titled "Idiomatica", and presented yet another in 2010, titled "Gallus No. 3"; both, again, composed by Mr. Grey.
The band's Pipe Major is Ian K. Macdonald. The lead drummer is Ken Constable.
Famous quotes containing the words police, pipe and/or band:
“We have passed the time of ... the laisser-faire [sic] school which believes that the government ought to do nothing but run a police force.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“It is not that the Englishman can’t feel—it is that he is afraid to feel. He has been taught at his public school that feeling is bad form. He must not express great joy or sorrow, or even open his mouth too wide when he talks—his pipe might fall out if he did.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)
“And the heavy night hung dark
The hills and waters o’er,
When a band of exiles moored their bark
On the wild New England shore.”
—Felicia Dorothea Hemans (1783–1835)