Gordon Duncan Memorial Kitchen Piping Competition, Skye Memorial Jigs to launch at Skagit Valley

With the blessing and sponsorship of the Gordon Duncan Memorial Trust, a new Gordon Duncan Memorial Kitchen Piping Competition will be launched at the 28th annual Skagit Valley Highland Games & Celtic Festival in Mount Vernon, Washington, on July 13th.

Available to pipers competing at the Open/Professional, Grade 1, and Grade 2 levels, the new contest calls for a five-minute max “anything-goes freestyle” selection. The only stipulation is that the performance must include at least one composition by the great Gordon Duncan, a virtuoso piper and creator of some of the most innovative pieces in the Highland piping repertory.

Prizes are 1st: $500, 2nd: $350, 3rd: $200, 4th: $100, and 5th: $50.

The games will also stage the first annual Skye Memorial Jig Competition in memory of the founder and director of the Celtic Arts Foundation, Skye Richendrfer. Open to all pipers of any grade level, the contest calls for competitors to play one jig of at least four parts once through.

Rather than contestants shuffling off in the usual audience-unfriendly manner, players must play off the stage with their own choice of tune. The prizes are the same as those offered for the Gordon Duncan Memorial Kitchen Piping Competition.

The Skagit Valley Highland Games & Celtic Festival is one of the most popular and longest-running piping and drumming events in the Pacific Northwest. In addition to the new events, there’s a full slate of the usual solo piping, drumming and pipe band competitions sanctioned by the British Columbia Pipers Association.

The Gordon Duncan Memorial Trust was formed in 2006 after Duncan’s passing in 2005 for “the advancement of education of residents of Scotland under the age of 30 years by encouraging participation in and the study of all forms of traditional music and in particular the music of the Great Highland Bagpipe; the advancement of the arts and culture of Scotland by promoting the performance, study and composition of all forms of traditional music and in particular the music of the Great Highland Bagpipe; and to encourage the attainment of high standards of performance and innovative composition in relation to all forms of traditional music and in particular the music of the Great Highland Bagpipe.”

The Trust uses a skeleton for a logo, commemorating the famous time in the 1980s when the ever-fun-loving Duncan jumped onto an airport security X-ray machine conveyor belt to play his practice chanter. The Grade 1 Vale of Atholl Pipe Band created the graphic for a successful sponsorship drive. That was another era, and it’s even more inadvisable to try that now.