Testimonials

Thanks to the generous grant award from the Trust, we managed to secure tuition for our young pipers, helping them gain not only skills in piping, but also musicianship, bandsmanship and courage. Our young pipers competed in solo categories at a recent competition and placed really well thanks to the encouragement they have received throughout their tuition. I have included some pictures of some of our young pipers getting their tuition.

The Gordon Duncan Memorial Trust supported the printing of three collections of music, one book of original compositions and two books filled with arrangements of contemporary music. The sponsorship was a great help to me personally as it alleviated much of the risk in releasing new music to the piping world. The books have proven to be extremely popular amongst young players, with many schools and organisations using them to arrange pieces for the freestyle contest at the Scottish Schools Pipe Band Championships and for school concerts. Thanks to the support of the Trust, I have been able to donate copies to schools.

I send my sincere thanks to the Trust for supporting me in this way.

Fèis Thatha would like to extend a huge thanks to the Gordon Duncan Memorial Trust for their generous support of our annual Fèis Weekend which took place in November 2025.

Over 80 young people between the ages of 2 and 14 joined us in Breadalbane Community Campus for a day of tuition in the traditional Gaelic arts. Participants aged P4+ chose between clarsach/harp, fiddle, accordion, whistle, percussion, guitar, band, step-dance or shinty while P1-3s spent the day in Fèis Bheag ‘Wee Fèis’ where they had a taster of Gaelic song and did lots of arts and crafts. We ran a free Cròileagan ‘Playgroup’ for under 5s and guided walks in Gaelic with BBC Alba’s Calum Maclean for the grown-ups.

The Gordon Duncan Memorial Trust’s generosity enabled the Fèis Weekend to run at an affordable price for parents as well as offer funded places for participants who required financial support. This day of workshops is followed up by year round classes in fiddle and guitar in Aberfeldy which participants of the Fèis Weekend are encouraged to come along too. The Trust’s support helps Fèis Thatha to achieve its aim of creating a thriving Gaelic and traditional arts scene in the Upper Tay area.

I was delighted to receive funding towards the costs of putting on workshops for the young people on the Isle of Arran as part of my winter tour in December.

These workshops were available to all high school students who played an instrument, traditional or otherwise and we had 30 participants.

The workshops were a huge success with Charlie Stewart teaching fiddle, Graeme Armstrong teaching guitar/multi instrument accompaniment and myself teaching the pipers. It was clear that the young people engaged with the new instructors.

The pipers learned a new tune to perform at the evening concert and also a couple of short melodies by ear which was a new experience and a different way of thinking. The fiddles and accompanists performed together playing two brand new tunes they had learned at the workshop and working on arrangement styles together as well.

Using the grant from the Gordon Duncan Memorial Trust allowed the musicians giving the workshop to be paid fairly and to offset the some of the costs of travel.

This is a model of workshop/performance in smaller local areas that I’d like to build in the future.

Thanks for everything that you do GDMT!