If you were hoping to score tickets for the Jan. 29th Robbie Burns Night of the Cochrane Pipe Band, sorry, they're all gone.

"We're completely sold out at this point, which is funny because we haven't put the tickets on sale yet," says Pipe Major JP Searle. "It just shows the success of our group and the hard work that we put in."

Since the end of the parade season, the Pipe Band has been preparing their selection of music for the evening.

"There's a lot of other revised music or new music that we're trying to put in different context, different arrangements, different time signatures, different styles of music, from dancing music, to jigs, reels, marches and everything in between."

"Pretty much every Saturday we get together as a group and work on different sets and see how we can transition the music from one style into the next and we have a lot of incredible resources in the area of professional pipers that we can pull from that we've built relationships with to help us out and give us that direction.

"It's a great group and we put a lot of effort in this. Robbie Burns, hence why we're probably sold out, right."

He says they try to find a music that complements the levels of all their players. Some members also pursue additional private instruction to help keep the group moving forward.

"Probably one of the challenges we face as a community group is the many different abilities of players because we do take from beginner to professional players in the group, and then trying to find the balance between music that is that complements all the levels of playership. We have music that would probably challenge the average player to the expert player, to the beginner player and just finding that that medium balance."

The band is made up of people of all ages, and they welcome more. Searle says they always have an eye on the future.

"We have some youth in the band now and we want to ensure this band lasts another 25 years so."

The Cochrane Pipe Band was founded in 1999, and its members wear the ancient Cochrane tartan.

Robbie Burns is a spectacular evening out and an important fundraiser. Money raised is used for instructional purposes, equipment, travel, and anything that assists the band in making their performances enjoyable for audiences. 

To learn more about the Cochrane Pipe Band go here.

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