Alexander competed at the British Columbia Pipers' Association Annual Gathering on Friday and Saturday April 2nd and 3rd. This is the first competition of the "summer" (even though the day ended in a heavy snow on the campus of Simon Fraser University) games season that counts toward the aggregate standings for the season. Alexander's Friday Piobaireachd performance went well, with the exception of some tuning challenges and a modest fingering mistake, but Alexander felt good about the performance he was able to turn in for top Gold Medalist Bruce Gandy, who was brought in from Nova Scotia, judging alongside his first instructor, Hal Senyk who was perfoming in the role of "reading" the piobaireachd music while Bruce focused on musical performance, expression, tuning and other factors. Alexander has been fortunate to take a few lessons with Hal Senyk as well, but his primary Piobaireachd instructor is Brian McKenzie, 2010 Winter Storm Silver Medalist, and his light music instructor is Kevin Auld, also Band Director for Northwest Junior Pipe Band where Alexander is the Pipe Major for the Grade 4 band.
On Saturday April 3rd, Alexander competed in the March Strathspey & Reel contest placing 5th of 18 (registered) and the Jig contest, taking 1st place of 18 registered pipers. It's likely no one was more surprised than Alexander, the youngest piper in the grade, when he was called to receive the Donald & Kathleen MacLeod Memorial Trophy for the jig contest. He felt good about his performances on the day, but being called twice in the top six was a surprise.
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