Finlay MacDonald (musician)

{{Distinguish|Finlay MacDonald (Teenage Fanclub)}}{{Short description|Scottish musician and composer (born 1978)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

Finlay MacDonald (born 1978) is a Scottish musician and composer.{{cite news | last = Davidson | first = Vicky | title = Piping Alive; Forget tartan, shortbread and whisky - just dance! | newspaper = Evening Times | location = Glasgow | pages = 13 | date = August 4, 2005 }} He was one of the first pipers to receive a BA in Scottish music and piping from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.{{cite news | last = Wild | first = Abigail | title = So cool, he's really piping hot; Profile Finlay MacDonald; With spiky hair and jeans, he seems more pop star than piper, particularly with his entourage of teenage female fans in tow. But who is the 27-year-old blowing the wind of change into traditional piping? | newspaper = The Herald | location = Glasgow | pages = 15 | date = August 13, 2005 }}

MacDonald is head of piping studies at the National Piping Centre in Glasgow.{{cite news | last = Ellis | first = Maureen | title = Piping Guru Goes from Rap to Reel in Jig Time | newspaper = Evening Times | location = Glasgow | pages = 26 | date = August 10, 2011 | access-date = December 15, 2012 |url=http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/lifestyle/13224400.Piping_guru_goes_from_rap_to_reel_in_jig_time/}} He founded his own band The Finlay MacDonald Band, which toured between 2006 and 2007 to highly positive reviews, though in recent years they have been inactive.{{cite news | title = Fort hosts prestigious piping contest | newspaper = Aberdeen Press and Journal | pages = 4 | date = August 4, 2007 }}
- {{cite news | last = Brooks | first = Cameron | title = Wet wet wet are headline act at Aberdeen's Hogmanay celebrations | newspaper = Aberdeen Press and Journal | pages = 24 | date = November 11, 2006 }} Annually he works with Roddy MacLeod to organise the Piping Live! Festival.

He performed with Jay-Z, P Diddy and Alicia Keys in 2010 and later with Bryan Adams at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.

As well as musical collaborations and performances, MacDonald appeared in the Michael Keaton film A Shot at Glory.

In 2012, MacDonald was the co-star with Alastair Campbell in a Sky Arts documentary, First Love, in which he taught the former Labour Party strategist, who had learned the pipes as a child, to prepare for a major solo piping performance at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow. The experience rekindled Campbell's love of piping, and MacDonald has since become his tutor, and the pair have performed together at a number of events, including anti-Brexit rallies.{{cite web |last1=Ward |first1=Rachel |title=First Love, Sky Arts, preview |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9033152/First-Love-Sky-Arts-preview.html |website=www.telegraph.co.uk |date=23 January 2012 |publisher=The Telegraph |access-date=29 August 2019}}