Robert Wallace was appointed Principal of the College of Piping and editor of the Piping Times in 1999. He is one of Scotland's leading professional pipers and has enjoyed a successful solo piping career. Highlights include the Gold Medals at Oban (1985) and Inverness (1995), the Clasp at Inverness (1999) and the Former Winners March Strathspey and Reel at Oban (1985).
He achieved a notable double in 1989 when he won both the Bratach Gorm (Blue Banner) and Gillies Cup at the London Piping Championship, the first piper to achieve this since the famous R.U. Brown in 1962. In 1998 he achieved a rare 'double' taking the Dunvegan Medal and then, later the same day, the Clasp at the Skye Gathering. In 1996 Robert captured the Bratach Gorm for the second time, and in 2005 the Gillies Cup.
He began playing at the age of nine in the 214th Boys Brigade in Glasgow, Scotland. At 18 he joined the now defunct, but well-remembered Grade One pipe band, Muirhead and Sons, many times the World Champions. He studied piobaireachd and light music under the pipe major, Robert Hardie, and when the band folded in 1979 began further piobaireachd tuition with Andrew Wright of Dunblane, a pupil of the great authorities on this music, P/M Donald MacLeod, the aforementioned R.U. Brown, and R.B. Nicol of Balmoral.
Robert, a member of the famous Whistlebinkies traditonal group, has appeared on the concert stage with the Scottish Ensemble, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the RSNO Chorus and, at the 1997 BBC Proms in the Albert Hall, London, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Robert Wallace has wide experience as a teacher. As well as teaching some of our leading pipers at the College he has taught extensively throughout Europe, in North America, South Africa, Hong Kong and Australia.