‘Duke’ Fordyce Chilcen Pier is Professor Emeritus at the department of music at the University of Alberta, where he taught trumpet and wind band conducting since 1973. He was chairman of the department of music from 1995 to 2003, and retired in 2004.

Educated at New Mexico, Yale and Boston Universities, Pier worked for a decade in the Boston area as a free-lance trumpeter, contractor and teacher. Pier held teaching positions at Yale, Brown and Boston Universities, and performed with the New Haven Symphony, the Boston Philharmonic, the Boston Pops, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Opera, the Boston Ballet and the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.

Since arriving in Alberta, Pier has continued his professional activity, appearing frequently as soloist and chamber musician on CBC, throughout Canada, as well as in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Japan.

Pier is a past-president of the Alberta Band Association and has been a member of the International Trumpet Guild, the World Association of Symphonic Band Ensembles and the College Directors National Band Association. Pier was the 1999 recipient of the Peterkin Award, given by the honorary band fraternity Phi Mu Alpha (Alberta) for outstanding service to the profession of wind band conducting. In 2006, he was inducted into the Edmonton Cultural Hall of Fame.