Steven McWhirter | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1983 (age 41–42) Ballymena, Northern Ireland |
| Instrument | snare drum |
| Website | stevenmcwhirter |
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.
McWhirter was born in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, in 1983. [1]
He joined the Cullybackey Pipe Band in Northern Ireland in 1994, [2] and also played with the Warrnambool & District Pipe Band in Australia. [1] When he joined Cullybackey he played the tenor drum, before moving on to play the snare. [1]
Cullybackey won the Grade 2 World Championships in 2002, and J. Reid Maxwell invited him to join the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band in British Columbia. [3] 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. [2]
In 2008 he moved to Scotland to join the Inveraray & District Pipe Band as leading drummer. [4] [2] Inveraray won all five major championships in Grade 2 in 2009, and were promoted to Grade 1 for 2010. [5] [6] In 2014, Inveraray won its first Major at the European Championships, held in Forres. [7]
McWhirter won the under-15 World Solo Championships in 1997 and 1998, and the World Solo Drumming Championships in 2006, [8] 2011, [9] 2012, 2013, [10] 2014, 2015, [11] 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2024. [12] He currently holds the record for most consecutive World Solo Drumming Championship wins. [13] [1] [2]
He has taught at schools, including Dollar Academy [14] and the Edinburgh Academy.