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Matt MacIsaac
Cape Breton

Matt MacIsaac

Born into a piping family in St. Peters, Cape Breton, Matt MacIsaac began playing whistle and pipes at age 10. Eight years later he won the Argyllshire Gathering Silver Medal at Oban, Scotland. In 2022, he became the first non-Scottish piper to win the Alasdair Gillies Memorial Recital Challenge at Piping Live! in Glasgow, and in 2024 he took the Gordon Duncan Memorial Competition. At 19 he began recording and touring the U.S. with Celtic fusion group Cuillin, and in 2001 joined Natalie MacMaster’s band, spending 15 years on the road playing pipes, whistles, banjo, guitar, and percussion, and appearing on several of her albums. Matt’s solo release, The Piping Album (2005), was praised for its pure focus on the bagpipe, masterful technique, and musicality. He is a member of the Juno-nominated Cape Breton band Beòlach and the all-star Spirit of Scotland Pipe Band, and in 2026 published The MacIsaac Collection of Pipe Music, Volume I. Now based in Nova Scotia again, Matt appears at Celtic Colours with Beòlach and in a duo with bandmate Mac Morin.

Festival Performances

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