Greg Wilson, a prizewinning piper who lives in the North Island, performed outside the university clocktower yesterday afternoon to celebrate the launch of three student music scholarships.
These support students undertaking new performance courses in Scottish piping and drumming, which have been established at the Otago University music department for the first time this year.
They are believed to be the only university-taught Scottish music performance courses in New Zealand.
Dr Peter Grant is a Toronto-based Otago University medical graduate who has long lived in Canada, practising as a psychiatrist before retiring last year.
He and his wife, Ruth Grant, have provided funding to support the creation of two David A. Grant Memorial Scholarships in Scottish piping and Scottish drumming.
The Grant family has also provided further financial backing for some music teaching involved in the new Scottish performance options at Otago.
The two scholarships honour the memory of Dr Grant's uncle, David Grant, a keen piper and former Otago resident, who died of his wounds in World War 1, in France on April 7, 1918, after being shot by a sniper during the Battle of the Somme.
One scholarship provides $3500 a year for a student intending to take the Scottish piping practice option, with the same support also offered to a student taking the Scottish drumming option.
Scholarship winners must be prepared to perform two Scottish airs, Amazing Grace and The Road to the Isles, each year on April 7.
Mr Wilson, who will be involved in teaching bagpipes as part of the new courses, performed the two airs outside the university clocktower yesterday afternoon in full regalia.
Dr Grant, who was back in Dunedin for yesterday's celebration, said he was "very pleased" with the way the scholarships were being developed and said they were an attempt to keep his uncle's spirit alive after his life had been shortened by war.
Music department acting head Peter Adams said the scholarships provided welcome and important support for the new Scottish music courses.
