BACKGROUND
Darryl’s journey began as a piper with The Boys’ Brigade in Singapore at the age of 12. He switched to drumming a year later and eventually reached the rank of Warrant Officer where he was appointed Lead Drummer from 1995-1996 and Drum Major from 1997-1998 with the 12th Company, The Boys’ Brigade.
Darryl joined the world renown Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Pipes & Drums in 2007 and served as the Drum Sergeant and Principal Percussionist (Bass/Tenor) for the National Division band from 2012-2018. He authored the National Midsection Curriculum that created standardized scores, audios and videos for all 8 RCMP Pipe Bands in Canada. He has travelled and performed for audiences all over the world including Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Singapore, Edinburgh, The Netherlands, Belgium, Colorado, Cleveland, New Hampshire, Quebec City, Halifax, and New York City.
DRUM MAJORING
In 2013, Darryl attended the inaugural RCMP National Drum Major Course. He has since served as Drum Major for the MacNab Scottish Festival (2014), the Kingston Scottish Festival (2016-2019), Glengarry Highland Games (since 2017), Montreal Highland Games (since 2017), and Cobourg Highland Games (2017-2023).
Darryl co-founded the Ottawa Caledonian Pipes & Drums in 2015 and he continues to serve as its Drum Major. This band is primarily composed of youth and young adults formerly from regional Army and Air Cadet pipe band programs. They won the North American Pipe Band Championships (Grade 5) in 2024. Today, the band competes at the Grade 4 level and also participates in numerous community parades through the year.
In 2019, he was invited by the Rob Roy Pipe Band to lead them in the New York City Tartan Day Parade and also led the massed pipes & drums for the festivities there. Darryl was appointed Senior Drum Major for the 2023 Cobourg Highland Games and for the inaugural 2024 Northumberland Highland Games, leading a field of over 1,000 pipers, drummers and drum majors. He also led the massed pipes & drums at the 2024 New Brunswick Highland Games in Fredericton.
In 2025, you can catch Darryl leading the massed pipes & drums at various festivals and events across Ontario, including the Northumberland Highland Games, the Carleton Place Tattoo, the Glengarry Highland Games, and the North Lanark Highland Games.
COMPETITION
Darryl previously competed with the Ottawa Police Service Pipe Band as a tenor drummer, winning the Grade 2 North American Pipe Band Championships in 2012 with them. He has also competed and won prizes in solo bass and tenor drumming. As an experienced Tenor/Bass Drumming Instructor, many of Darryl’s former students are now serving in Lead Bass or Lead Tenor roles in their respective pipe bands.
Darryl debuted as a competitive drum major in 2019, and he won the Drum Major Competition at the 2023 Montreal Highland Games. In 2025, Darryl will be returning to the competition circle as a Tenor Drummer with the Grade 4 Ottawa Caledonian Pipes & Drums.
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
He has travelled extensively across Asia, Europe and North America to compete, judge, perform and teach pipe band drumming & drum majoring. Some of the highlights in his career include performing at the United Nations Headquarters, the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, in The Netherlands for the Canadian Liberation of Holland Tour, in front of a 200-million TV audience at the Shanghai Tourism Festival, on stage with Andre Rieu and his Johann Strauss Orchestra, and leading the massed pipes and drums at the New York City Tartan Day celebrations in 2019. In 2023, Darryl was invited to perform with the Lion City Pipe Band at the St. Andrew’s Society of Singapore’s Robbie Burns Gala. Darryl also had the honour of being appointed the Senior Drum Major for the 75th Anniversary edition of the Glengarry Highland Games Tattoo in 2024.
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
By day, Darryl is an Insurance Broker and brokerage owner who has used his business connections to support the pipe band world. Some of these contributions include sponsoring the Glengarry Highland Games (2016), the Kingston Scottish Festival (2018), the Scotchtoberfest Ceilidh (2019), and the Glengarry Cup, Canada’s premier professional solo piping competition (2024).
Darryl has also successfully helped pipe bands write funding grants, served as Director for the Ottawa Celtic Music & Dance Society (2010-2015), has been the Master of Ceremonies for the Kingston Highland Games (2013-2019) and was an emcee for the pipe band contests at the 2019 and 2024 Glengarry Highland Games.
PERSONAL
A proud resident of Ottawa since 2001 who is fluently bilingual in English and Mandarin, Darryl is an alumnus of both Carleton University and Griffith University (Australia) where he earned an Honours degree in Anthropology and an Advanced Diploma in Mass Communications, respectively. He is also a military veteran who served 2.5 years as an Infantry Soldier in the Singapore Army. In his spare time, he is an avid traveler, a whisky aficionado, and dedicates time weekly to coach/mentor youth.