Duncan Menzies is a London-based musician and researcher.

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Growing up in the north east of Scotland, Duncan was surrounded by Scottish traditional music from an early age.  He began learning the fiddle at the age of 7, and took up the bagpipes 3 years later.

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While still at school, Duncan received tuition from the renowned Scottish fiddler and violinist James Alexander, and toured in the USA, Canada and Europe as a member of the Fochabers Fiddlers.  He also performed with the Strathspey Fiddlers under the direction of the legendary Donald Barr, and with the Buckie and District Pipe Band. As a piper, Duncan has studied under Councillor Sinclair Longmore and the late, great Pipe Major David Duncan.

After graduating from the University of Glasgow in 2009 with a 1st class honours M.Eng degree, Duncan obtained an EPSRC scholarship for a PhD programme in Media and Arts Technology at Queen Mary University of London.  His research examines technological approaches to assist in teaching and learning the Great Highland Bagpipe, and has led to the development of the P-bROCK digital bagpipe hardware and software system.  Duncan’s thesis “Technological Support for Highland Piping Tuition and Practice” was supervised by Dr. Andrew McPherson.  In September 2015, Duncan passed his PhD viva with no corrections.

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Duncan performs regularly with a variety of musical groups, both in London and around the UK/Europe.

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