Meet our Judge and Piper

Catherine MacLeod - Angus, Ontario

Catherine MacLeod is the director of the MacLeod Highland Dance Studio in Sault Ste. Marie, Kingston and Angus, Ontario, and holds her Fellows with the SDTA. She is a former SDTA’s Medal Examinations coordinator (Ontario, Quebec and Northeastern United States) and past executive member of the ScotDance Canada and ScotDance Ontario.

Catherine has taught highland dancing to Army & Navy cadets for over 20 years, and currently teaches at the Royal Military College (RMC) in Kingston Ontario. Catherine also directed the Lock City International Highland Dance Weekend from 2004 – 2018 and co-directed “Pipes and Drums for ALS” a National Fundraiser to raise funds for ALS research.

Along with being a Pipe Band snare drummer, she has choreographed award-winning freestyle routines for the Pipe Bands and Dancers, as well performances for Tattoos and Ceilidh events. Catherine has been a SOBHD Judge since 2000 and has judged throughout Canada and the United States.

Doug Frobese began playing bagpipes at age 9 at St. Thomas Episcopal School in Houston, Texas. In 1991, Doug joined the Hamilton (now St. Thomas Alumni) Pipe Band and served as pipe major from 1997 to 2000. During this time, the band won the World Championships in Grade 3A, and were 3rd the following year when they moved up to Grade 2. This past August, St. Thomas Alumni became Grade 2 World Champions at the World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow.

In addition to playing with St. Thomas Alumni, Doug also plays for Scottish highland dancing competitions throughout the US and with Celtic folk bands “The Rogues” and “Scotland Rising”. Doug has also been selected to be one of the dance pipers for the United States National Championships in 2020. When not piping, Doug is a lawyer in Dallas.