NEWS – December 26, 2008
“Pipes” Proceeds Fund New Music Scholarship
Pipe Major Kevin Ray Blandford
The Clan Currie Society has announced their second in a series of arts scholarships to help preserve and promote Highland culture and heritage – the Pipe Major Kevin Ray Blandford Memorial Bagpipe Scholarship. The scholarship, named for the late Kevin Blandford, co-creator of Clan Currie’s Pipes of Christmas concerts, will be administered annually by the staff at the National Piping Centre in Glasgow, Scotland.
The Society made the announcement at the New York performance of their highly popular “Pipes of Christmas” concert on Sunday, December 21, 2008. “We are delighted to be announcing this evening the second in what is becoming a series of performing arts scholarships in partnership with some of the leading Scottish arts organizations in the U.S., Canada, and Scotland,” said Society president Robert Currie.
This is the second annual piping scholarship to be offered by Clan Currie. In 2006, the Clan Currie Society established the Alex Currie Memorial Scholarship for Bagpipe which is administered by the Gaelic College in St. Ann’s, Nova Scotia.
There are no eligibility restrictions to applying for the scholarship. “We’d never want to prevent a deserving student from being awarded this scholarship simply because of his or her name or clan affiliation,” said Currie.
“The National Piping Centre is delighted that the Clan Currie Society is supporting the piping community with a bursary in honour of Kevin Blandford,” said Margaret Houlihan, a Director for the Centre.
The annual scholarship has been designated for the Centre’s US-based piping workshop program in New York. Each year the Centre offers three one week workshops with leading instructors. The workshops take place in New York, California, and Georgia.
About Pipe Major Kevin Ray Blandford (1963 – 2003)
Kevin Blandford was already in love with music when he became infatuated with the bagpipes at 14. That infatuation grew much deeper, to the point where he became one of the most influential pipers in the United States, teaching dozens of students in California, composing original pieces, and performing the now classic Pipes of Christmas concert produced by the Clan Currie Society since 1999 in New York and New Jersey and the Society’s annual Kirking of the Tartans service from 1995 – 1998.
Blandford’s performances of the Pipes of Christmas quickly became an annual family event for those on the east coast, while Blandford’s recording of the same name originally made in the early 1990s have sold out several printings. “I don’t perform other Christmas concerts,” he said in a 2002 interview. “This is it.”
He had served as Pipe Major of the award-winning R.P. Blandford & Son Pipe Band since 1988. He and his father, Paul, had created the R.P. Blandford and Son Ltd. British Isles Import Shop in 1983. Kevin was also the president of the Western United States Pipe Band Association (WUSPBA) for several years.
Blandford lost his battle to cancer on November 26, 2003. He was only 40 years old. Though he had kept the December 2003 Pipes of Christmas concert as a personal goal, he passed away just weeks short of the performances, which were dedicated to him.