The Board of Trustees Annual Report and Accounts January 1[st] 2025 to December 31[st] 2025 (Year 19)
CHAIRMAN’S REPORT
I present this Annual Report on the activities of the Gordon Duncan Memorial Trust for 2025.
It was a sad start to 2025 with the passing of a great friend and a previous piper in ‘the Vale’, Pipe Major Gordon Campbell. A composer of some well-known
tunes and a character and friend of Gordon and I over many years. Another busy year and for the first time there has been a “Gordon Duncan Memorial Piping Competition” held by the Victorian Pipers Association (VPA), to be a prestigious annual event held at the
National Celtic Festival in Parlington, Victoria, Australia. Along with the second annual “Gordon Duncan Kitchen Piping Competition” held at the Skagit Valley Highland Games and Celtic Festival in Mount Vernon, Washington State, USA. Two very special events at the opposite ends of the Earth from Scotland, both celebrating Gordon’s legacy.
Thank you, again, to all the Trustees and all who have supported the Trust in 2025 and we look forward to more new adventures in 2026. Starting with a re-enactment of Vale of Atholl Pipe Band’s concert (& CD recording of) “Live ‘N Well”, this time performed by the Gordon Duncan Tribute Pipe Band of topclass current players, as “Live ‘N Well @ 30”
Ian Duncan, Chair
DONATIONS gratefully received in 2025 came to a total of £7,134.77
Special thanks to the Logan Charitable Trust, John Spivey, The Charities Trust, the family of PM Gordon Campbell (in his memory) and the PayPal Giving Fund. These donations made a total of £6,384.77
A donation of £200 was made by the London Scottish Pipes & Drums in appreciation of two very old leopard skins for tenor drummers (both in need of a bit of repair) which Chris found when clearing the loft! Several smaller donations were made, a total of £305.00 by PayPal and £245.00 by direct payment.
OVERALL SPONSORSHIP TO DATE : This year the GDMT
made a total of twenty-three Sponsorship Awards. Also, twelve Merchandise Awards were made as prizes for competitions and as thanks for helping the GDMT.
A total of £22,028.52 was awarded by the GDMT in 2025.
The GDMT was set up in 2006 and since 2008 we have now sponsored 227 groups and individuals to the total amount of just over £146,269.50 to date.
MERCHANDISE SPONSORSHIP came to £886.52 this year. Most
of this was for prizes for competitions; the Ardmore Junior Competition in Eire, Lewis & Harris Junior Competition, The Scottish Schools Pipes & Drums Trust (SSPDT) Freestyle Competition, The Victorian Pipers Association (VPA) Competition in Australia and the Young Piper of the Year 2025. We also supported the Wheel of Fortune Competition, the Gordon Duncan Memorial Solo Competition at Piping Live! We also gave a small support to the Gibraltar Pipe Band.
AWARDS & SPONSORSHIPS made by the GDMT in 2025:
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The Ardmore Cup Junior Competition: (The GDMT paid for prizes from McCallum Bagpipes, Dronedry Ltd, & An Crios Greine.)
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SSPDT Freestyle Competition (Sponsored late 2024 for this event). This SSPDT Competition was a wonderful day of competitions involving so many school age children totally involved and enjoying their music. The worthy winners of the Freestyle Competition were the Sgoil Bagh a’Chaisteil, from Castlebay, Barra.
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The Pipe Major Donald MacLeod Memorial Competitions: both the Invitational Senior Event and the new Junior Competition. In the Junior competition of 8 young players, all from the Outer Hebrides, the overall winner (and winner of each of the three competitions) was Michael MacLellan
The overall winner of the Invitational Senior Competition in 2025 was Angus MacColl, with 2 seconds and a third placing. Finlay Johnston won the Coel Mohr and Alasdair Henderson won the MSR and the Hornpipe & Jig. A great day of music.
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Bobby Allen
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Lewis and Harris Youth Pipe Band.
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Dunkeld and Birnam Traditional Youth Music Group.
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Strathmore Schools Pipe Band.
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Methil & District Pipe Band.
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The Skye Youth Pipe Band.
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Celtic Arts Foundation for the Gordon Duncan Kitchen Piping Competition held in Washington State, USA. On the second year of this event the winner was Cameron Bonar of Vancouver.
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The Victorian Pipers Association of Victoria State, Australia, for their inaugural Gordon Duncan Memorial Piping Competition. The winner of this wonderful new event was Daniel Whelan.
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Garnock Valley Pipes & Drums.
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The Raasay Competition.
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The National Piping Centre ref our own Gordon Duncan Memorial Solo Piping Competition. The four players this year were Cedric Le Bozec from Brittany, James Stone from Ireland, Brian Lamond from Scotland and Tori Kiloran from Canada, representing the ‘Rest of the World’. James Stone was the 2025 Overall Winner.
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Feis Thatha of the Aberfeldy Gaelic Group 16. Lowland & Borders Pipers’ Society.
17. NPC for their Fund-Raising Ball.
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East Ayrshire Caledonian Pipe Band.
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Comann Piob (Young Piper of the Year Competition).
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Arran Music School
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Ross Miller
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Keeva Eason
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Louise McCormack
PLEASE SEE OUR WEBSITE AT www.gordonduncan.co.uk FOR THE FEEDBACK AND TESTIMONIALS OF THE RECIPIENTS.
Our GDMT Website: www.gordonduncan.co.uk
Our website is full of information on what we do each year with a huge amount of historical detail, photos and recordings.
The Testimonials from the recipients of awards are added as they get them back to us, so, the more recent recipients will not have added their feedback yet.
Thank you to Sian for keeping the GDMT up to date on social media. A challenge with everything that is going on!
AGM 2025
Our AGM was held on the Monday the 24[th] March 2025, when Chris announced that she needed to reduce the workload of both the ‘shop’ and the Secretarial duties. Ideally, she would like to hand over the Treasurers duties too.
It has been a busy year and the GDMT has grown in so many directions both at home and now extending its reach across the globe. Thanks to Kenny’s input, the GDMT shop has moved out of The Millstead to be based in Glasgow under the control of Alison, of GloMusic. Thank you, Alison for doing a great job for the GDMT.
It took some more time before a wonderful new secretary, Georgie, was found in October. The hand over is going very well and many thanks to Georgie for stepping in and taking over so well. The Annual Report will be in your hands for 2026!
It was such a busy AGM we forgot to take a photo this time!
SO, TO THE FUTURE
Two years ago, after the Covid lockdown, little did we know that
in 2025 there would be two top class piping competitions for solo pipers held as far away from Scotland as the West Coast of the USA and the South Coast of Australia, both requiring the competitors to play one of Gordon’s tunes in their musical selection. This says so much about the magic of Gordon’s compositions!
Also, at Celtic Connections 2026, the pipe band concert, thanks to Ross, became a re-enactment of the Macnaughton’s Vale of Atholl pre-Worlds concert of 1995, recorded on CD at the time as “Live ‘N Well”, as it was held in Motherwell before the Glasgow Concert Hall was built. This time it was held at the Glasgow Concert Hall to a great audience.
This time it was “Live ‘N Well @ 30”: the first half was a lovely mix of solo tunes by the great Stuart Liddell, then Gordon’s lively tunes played by Ross & Ali & Owen Sinclair. Then a beautiful tribute to Alex Duncan by Finlay MacDonald, Tina Duncan and Owen Sinclair and the first half ended with Donald Shaw & Greg Lawson playing Gordon’s ‘Sleeping Tune’. After the short interval the Gordon Duncan Tribute Pipe Band played some wonderful tunes by Gordon and Roddy S MacDonald brilliantly A wonderful start to 2026.
Looking further forward the Inter Celtic Festival held annually in Lorient has set up a project to create statues of musicians from the 7 Celtic nations who participated in the festival. The first nations represented in the project are Ireland, with a statue of Paddy Maloney: then Galicia, with a statue of Carlos Numez: the third nation will be Scotland, with a statue of Gordon Duncan. The inauguration is planned for 2027.