It seems that there is so much more on for flute and whistle players to attend these days and it is great to see that the inaugural Alex Green Weekend will take place in Aberdeen 1-3 March. The weekend celebrates the NE whistler with an impressive lineup of concerts and workshops organised by The Elphinstone Institute, which is part of the University of Aberdeen.
Featured performers and tutors are Cathal McConnell, Mary Bergin, Fred Morrison, Dougie Pincock, Claire Mann, Tom Oakes and Kenny Hadden in a range of events, some of which are free to attend.
It’s a good chance to see and hear so many contributors to The FluteFling Collection – five of those mentioned are included. You can get your copy here or catch Kenny Hadden over the festival weekend.
Alex Green had a unique and authentic style of playing, which has been described as “spit-staccato” (I’m sure there must be a better and more attractive descriptor — maybe someone who knows NE Scottish dialects can suggest one). A highly influential and generous musician by all accounts.
Ali Hutton and Tom Oakes perform at FluteFling 2023 (c) Gordon Turnbull
FluteFling returned to Edinburgh with a great full weekend in May, featuring Tom Oakes and Ali Hutton in concert and workshops with Davy Maguire, Sharon Creasey and Tom Oakes.
The sun shone on a sell-out event at our new venue in the north of Edinburgh, the Heart of Newhaven Community, for our first post-lockdown weekend in Edinburgh. Just West of neighbouring Leith, it proved to be the perfect setting. (See this blog post for peek behind the scenes).
Friday
Tom Oakes had initially been invited to perform at the cancelled 2020 event, so we were delighted that he was able to take to the stage with Ali Hutton in a new duo. Support came from Sharon Creasey on her Böhm system flute, with Tom’s delicate bouzouki underpinning her strong, brilliant sound as she treated us to some of the tunes from The FluteFling Collection. It’s always a treat to listen to other flute players that we don’t always get to hear, so kudos to Niall Kenny for stepping into the other support slot despite a long shift in his day job as agricultural vet. His tone shone through as he got into the groove.
A tuning issue between Ali Hutton’s pipes and Tom’s flute at warm-up meant a last minute change as Ali took a back seat and accompanied Tom. What followed was a flute masterclass in technique, control and tone, from fast-paced cascades of newly penned tunes in tumbling time signatures to slow airs with minimal foot pedal live effects. (“The best foot pedal control from a non-driver I have ever seen”, according to Ali Hutton). Underpinned by Ali’s sympathetic guitar, sometimes driving, sometimes holding back to provide more space to the music, the packed audience were mesmerised and appreciative. For more of that considered and thoughtful control, see Tom’s album Water Street. Look out for more of Ali and Tom in the future.
Tom and Sharon were to be teaching the following day and third tutor Davy Maguire arrived from Belfast during the concert. He joined them both on stage for a rousing set of tunes to wind up the concert and preface the session in the concert hall that followed.
Tunes after the Friday night concert. (c) Gordon Turnbull
Saturday
Flute players going through the paces during an afternoon workshop. (c) Gordon Turnbull
The sun really shone for us on the Saturday, with blue skies marking the end of a cold spring. It contributed to a special day, as we had taken over the Anchor Hub at Heart of Newhaven Community and people were able to spill out into the sunshine at the breaks between the sell-out workshops.
It was great to see so many new and familiar faces, with people catching up with each other, reconnecting and making new friends.
One big difference was the space that we had and in the middle of it all, a desk run by Coralie Mills and Linda Harkness who kept things running smoothly on the ground.
Kenny Hadden speaking on the traditional flute revival in Scotland. (c) Gordon Turnbull
As in previous years, the teaching was rounded off with a talk. Kenny Hadden gave a presentation on the history of the flute in the Folk Revival in Scotland.
Updated from the one he gave at the book launch in Stonehaven in 2022, it was an illustrated form of the introduction he wrote for The FluteFling Collection and introduced many people to a subject that is little known or misunderstood.
One highlight was the presence of Dougie Pincock, who had arrived during the day to give a talk in the evening. As a member of The Battlefield Band, Dougie had a significant part to play in the Scottish flute revival himself.
Dougie Pincock then and now, standing in front of a photo taken during his time in The Battlefield Band (c) Gordon Turnbull
Davy Maguire and Sharon Creasey listen closely as Dougie Pincock performs a set of tunes on the Highland pipes. (c) Gordon Turnbull
After a now-traditional group curry, Dougie went on to give a talk and demonstration in the hall on Highland piping and the flute.
Always a particularly engaging and entertaining speaker, Dougie is a contributor to The FluteFling Collection. Take-aways included a better understanding of the role of bagpipes in the Folk Revival, the need to learn correct versions of tunes and the importance of grace notes or articulation in Highland pipe tunes.
Following the talk, the remainder of the evening saw another session take place before we all had to make our ways home.
Sunday
Some of the contributors to The FluteFling Collection. L-R: Rebecca Knorr, Davy Maguire, Sharon Creasey (back), Kenny Hadden (seated), Gordon Turnbull (c) John Crawford
With another return to our previous traditions, brunch was in town near Sandy Bells. Rebecca Knorr joined us and we had a photo opportunity to have a gathering of tunebook contributors. Not the complete set, but the biggest number yet in the same place.
The session in a near-empty Sandy Bells was as good as any previously, with a great sound produced by all in the back space of the pub. As ever, we were joined by Cathal McConnell (also a tunebook contributor) who has become like a patron saint of the organisation.
The Sunday session in Sandy Bells. Clockwise L-R: Cathal McConnell, Sharon Creasey, Ann Ward, Martin Duckworth, Davy Maguire, Rebecca Knorr, Gordon Turnbull, Richard Elliot, Kenny Hadden.
While people had to make a move for the road home, there was still time for a final fling as a handful of us joined the excellent Waverley Bar session regulars for a short while.
The Waverley Bar session: L-R: Davy Maguire, John Martin, Geoarge Duff, Allan MacDonald (c) Gordon Turnbull
It wound up a fine weekend of music and togetherness, much needed by all of the FluteFling community after the difficulties of the past few years.
Now that we have broken the ice and found a way to do this kind of thing again, we have plans to do so again.
Not only do we have the Aberdeen weekend dates in place (3-5 November), we are already working hard for 2024, which will be the 10th anniversary of FluteFling, which we hope will be very special.
Thanks again, to all of the contributors, participants and well-wishers. In the meantime, sign up to the newsletter to keep up with these and other FluteFling activities.
The FluteFling Collection book launch and workshops 9 July 2022
Return to in-person events
John Crawford, Euan Reid, Kenny Hadden and Sharon Creasey at an outdoor session at Stonehaven. (c) Gordon Turnbull
Getting back into in-person events was never going to be easy, but we knew we had to launch the tunebook at some point. We couldn’t have chosen a better way, than at the 33rd Stonehaven Folk Festival. Just south of Aberdeen, it is a long established landmark festival in Scotland. With a number of artists appearing that included the flute or whistle — Flook, Rura and Deira from Asturias, it was definitely a good match.
Sharon Creasey, Kenny Hadden and myself, with John Crawford and Peter Saunders, had begun thinking about this last year but found it tricky with Covid levels being so unpredictable. Thinking about how we might have to manage an in-person event in such a climate was difficult. When I looked in January, there were still restrictions on room capacity and requirements for mitigation. The rules changed but could have changed again by the time we had responded. FluteFling is run in people’s spare time and there were organisations with full time staff who struggled, so it wasn’t going to be simple.
On top of that, we were collectively no longer used to playing in sessions, performing and teaching. I think I hadn’t taught for 2 years and certainly hadn’t played on stage for 3 or 4 years. There were steep relearning curves whichever way we looked. So Kenny approached Stonehaven organisers Charlie West and Meg Findlay knowing that we needed a bit of help.
To their credit, they understood the situation and used their experience to make it straightforward. The festival was only just returning after having to cancel the last two years and the performers that weekend were rebooked from the 2020 weekend that didn’t run. Clearly, trying to get back to the things that matter to us was a theme of the weekend.
John Crawford completed the necessary risk assessments for the workshops and he and Pete Saunders were volunteering, so we were well looked after and it was less to think about.
Setting up
Kenny Hadden, Coralie Mills and John Crawford ready to sell copies of the book. (c) Gordon Turnbull
The weekend was set to be a sunny one and we set our stall and new banners up in the hot and sometimes busy bar in the Town Hall on the Friday evening. Coralie Mills had kindly volunteered to run the stall, the new banners drew attention and the contactless machine was soon doing its business as we drew some friendly attention and began selling our first copies.
Having worked on this for over a year, largely in lockdown, it was difficult to gauge what kind of response the book might have. Sharon in particular had shaped it with the contributors and we could see a value in it that we hoped others would recognise. So it was gratifying to see the response from all musicians, not just flute and whistle players. Thank you to everyone who took the time to speak to us about it over the weekend.
The stall was in the bar upstairs from the concert hall and we able to quietly nip in and out to the balcony and watch some of the performances in between catching up with each friends we hadn’t seen in person for a while.
Flook performing at Stonehaven Folk Festival (c) Gordon Turnbull
Flook were in fine energetic form and, as expected, extraordinarily tight and focused. We had put up a signed copy of the tunebook as a raffle prize and were bowled over to discover that the whole band had supported us by adding their signatures. Somebody walked away that evening with quite a special prize.
Fèis and chips
Gordon teaching a flute workshop at Stonehaven (c) David Fernandez
The Saturday workshops at Dunottar Primary School were low key and with a friendly and helpful Janny and volunteers we were quickly set up. The morning workshops were beginner flute (Kenny Hadden) and beginner whistle (myself and Sharon Creasey). It was the first time that we had tried two tutors in one workshop, but it meant that Sharon and I could address individual issues and compare notes as we went along — it’s always good to hear different perspectives on the same subject.
In the afternoon, Sharon took an advanced whistle class while I took the flute class. Everyone was at different stages of returning to playing music again — some had not played for months, some had not been in sessions, others had happily been playing away in person or online. It was tricky to get the balance right, but we all had to begin somewhere.
Returning to teaching after a gap of 2 years was also a personal challenge. There was lots of talk and questions and in the back of my mind, I could hear Hammy Hamilton’s comment from Cruinniú na Bhfliúit, that he was always happy to hear talk coming from a room because it meant that people were discussing questions rather than simply learning tunes. As David Fednandez said, he was just happy to be back with others again playing the flute.
Kenny Hadden and Gordon Turnbull perform at Stonehaven Folk Festival (c) Martin Duckworth
Straight after the workshops, Kenny and I did a performance spot in the marquee in the square. We played some of our tunes from the book, including a duet. As many musicians elsewhere had said, it was good to get back to performing. Some of it felt familiar, other parts a bit alien after the last few years, but the sound was good and the audience enjoyed it.
The Asturian band Deira followed us on stage and were complimentary. As we dashed across the road to the book launch, their amazing sound rang out across the square and I made a mental note to try and hear more of them.
Kenny Hadden giving a talk at Stonehaven on the revival of the flute in Scottish traditional music (c) Gordon Turnbull
In the function room of No. 44, around 50 people had gathered to hear Kenny, who had set himself up to give an illustrated talk on the revival of the flute in traditional Scottish music.
With a big display screen and good sound, his meticulous trawl through the archives was an expansion on his essay in The FluteFling Collection that had people talking afterwards.
I think most people learned something new and to others it was a complete revelation. There were good questions from an engaged audience afterwards and I hope that there will be other chances to hear Kenny present this again.
Kenny, Sharon and myself followed the talk with a short recital of our own contributions to The FluteFling Collection. Peter Saunders was there and you can hear some of the performance on Peter’s YouTube channel:
An Aberdeen-based Polish whistler and David Fernandez at the book launch session. (c) Gordon Turnbull
There was a short session afterwards and friends were able to catch up with each other. Somehow, there’s never enough time to do everything we would like to do.
We were fortunate in that the Festival had donated the space to us and provided a sound technician to help set us up. With pubs and bars filled with music across the town, we also our own space to play and could hear each other.
The bookstall still needed manning and people were getting hungry after a long day
Deira performing at Stonehaven Folk Festival (c) Gordon Turnbull
I managed to catch Deira perform after the launch. The trio have a tight and driving sound that reminds me of Rura, but playing traditional Asturian and original tunes with a creative use of live loops and effects.
It’s easy to see how they went down well at Celtic Connections just before the pandemic and I recommend checking them out.
Kenny Hadden and Sharon Creasey on whistles at Stonehaven. (c) Gordon Turnbull
We ended up taking fish suppers to the splendid boardwalk that runs along the shore. A tune was soon struck up and we were joined by the Paddy Buchanan Band who had done a great performance on the Friday night. It was a fine evening to cap a fine day.
Easy like Sunday lunchtime
Gordon, Sharon and Kenny (c) David Fernandez
On Sunday, we took some time to tie up the loose ends, drink coffee and reflect on the launch, thinking of what happens next.
There was such a buzz from being with people again, many of whom we hadn’t seen for a couple of years, and playing music together. The support and goodwill towards FluteFling was overwhelming, so thank you to everyone who helped to make it happen and to those who managed to attend.
Our thanks go to the organisers for accommodating us and making us feel so welcome. This was most certainly a case of a bigger organisation being true to their roots and seeing the opportunity to give a helping hand to a smaller organisation such as ourselves to get going again in the post-lockdown world. We were able to provide workshops in return and so the benefit was mutual and we would consider similar arrangements in future.
Our thanks too, for Tasgadh for the grant and support that enabled the publication of the book in the first place and to the amazing contributors who were so keen to be part of this project. To order your own copy of The FluteFling Collection in Print or eBook format, visit the FluteFling Shop.
It was a memorable weekend and we resolved to have a similar event in Edinburgh. Covid and personal circumstances have delayed this, but we all look forward to the next one. Sign up to the newsletter to hear about it first.
In April 2021 the second FluteFling Online event took place, with a weekend curated by Tom Oakes featuring an online concert, workshops and a masterclass. Finally, I have managed to complete writing it up.
Following the success of the first FluteFling online workshops with Clare Mann in December 2020, the team were keen to try to mark the Edinburgh weekend that was cancelled at the beginning of the pandemic in April 2020. Tom Oakes had been due to perform that weekend, so it was natural to approach him.
After exploring a few options together the outcome was a core series of four workshops over two days, with an additional multi-location concert on the Friday night. The weekend finished with a masterclass from Tom on using the keys on keyed flutes for traditional music, an aspect of the music performance which is often overlooked. Delivered via Zoom, the main workshops were recorded to allow access across different time zones, a popular decision that we carried over from our previous event.
Despite the beginning of the easing of some lockdown restrictions, cumulative screen fatigue, better weather and improving daylight hours, numbers were very healthy. 35 people attended the evening concert, 38 attended the workshops and 21 attended the masterclass. This still compared favourably with previous in-person events and has encouraged FluteFling organisers to consider including online access in the future, regardless of circumstances.
Friday night concert
The Friday concert was informal and international, featuring Tom Oakes (Edinburgh) who had invited Aoife Granville (County Kerry, Ireland), Philippe Barnes (London) and Kirsi Olja (Finland) on a variety of flutes, whistles and recorders. The musicians played solo from their homes but there was engaging crossover chat and conversation about music, instruments and traditions, ending in questions from the global online audience.
Technology didn’t let us down and the audience at home enjoyed a journey with flutes across Europe. Aoife Granville’s music from Kerry included punchy and spirited traditional fife tunes that resonated with Scottish traditions. Her performance also referenced her project that celebrates the pioneering contributions of women to Irish traditional flute music. You can watch a video on that topic on YouTube.
The Boehm system flute is becoming better understood in traditional music and Philippe Barnes showcased a fine range of driving tunes and slower pieces with tone and colour more associated with wooden flutes. He also played a simple system wooden flute and introduced us to a richly sonorous Boehm alto. Philippe is a multi-instrumentalist who also plays the uillean pipes, his fingered articulation carries over from them effortlessly. A personal highlight was a slow air that I failed to make a note of, so I’ll have to try and catch him again.
The music of Finland is not necessarily well-known in Scotland and Kirsi Olja introduced us to traditional airs and dance music on recorders and end-blown flutes that invite us all to learn more. However, her improvisational singing while playing primitive fipple flutes with bark intact was as elemental and arresting as it was unexpected.
Weekend workshops and masterclass
The workshop formats of Saturday and Sunday morning and afternoon sessions worked to allow everyone screen breaks and keep things fresh. From his studio in a 17th Century building in Leith, the old port for Edinburgh, Tom took us through a wide range of tunes for all tastes. These included The Keilder Schottische and Matt Seattle’s The Four Winds — Borders tunes from his time living in Newcastle, while the pipes jig The Snuff Wife and Hamish the Carpenter from Cape Breton reflected more his time in Edinburgh and Glasgow sessions. The vibrant contemporary folk scene in Scotland often features more modern tunes that play on traditional themes and Tom also treated us to one of his own compositions.
As if that wasn’t enough, the weekend finished with a Masterclass from Tom. Initially focusing on the use of keys on keyed flutes in traditional music, he also covered tuning, embouchure and ergonomics, tone, flute design and the differences between historical flutes and contemporary models used in traditional music.
With so much covered, there was something for everyone to take away and explore. Thanks again to Tom for taking it on and keeping the energy levels going. Thanks too to Pete Saunders who manned the decks admirably and kept the technology running smoothly. Not to forget the FluteFling team who worked in the background and were on hand to assist when called upon.
It has taken me a while to get around to writing this up, but Tom has been working hard. He has a new album coming out as I write. By popular demand his solo flute outing, entitled Water Street, is available for pre-order. See his website for more details: https://www.tomoakesmusic.com
A charity evening of unforgettable traditional flute music, featuring Irish Young Traditional Musician of the Year Órlaith McAuliffe with supporting guests including Niall Kenny, Elizabeth Ford, Sharon Creasey, Kenny Hadden and Gordon Turnbull, more to be announced.
This is a rare Edinburgh opportunity to hear Órlaith, who at the age of just 22 has been crowned All Ireland Champion no fewer than 19 times, including on both flute and whistle in 2011. Órlaith is the current holder of the title of Young Traditional Musician of the Year 2016 from the TG4 Gradam Ceoil Awards. As well as being a highly accomplished performer, Órlaith is also an original and prolific composer many of whose distinctive compositions feature in the sets of CrossHarbour, with whom she also plays.
Órlaith will be teaching at this years FluteFling Scottish Flute Weekend, which takes place on Saturday 17th June. She will be supported by the other tutors and others are to be confirmed.
The FluteFling Traditional Flute Concert 2017 will take place at
City of Edinburgh Methodist Church 25 Nicolson Square, Edinburgh EH8 9BX 7.30 – 9.30 pm (doors open 7pm)
16 June 2017
Tickets £10/ £8 (concessions)online in advance* OR £12/ £10 (concessions) on the door. Online discount available with a workshop ticket bought in advance
Please note there is no alcohol allowed on the premises. A cafe is available & there are lots of pubs nearby!
There will be a free session at Jeanie Deans Tryst afterwards and you are welcome to attend.
SAMH
Proceeds from the event will go towards supporting the Scottish Association for Mental Health (SAMH), an important charity dedicated to mental health and well-being for all. Given that 1 in 4 people are affected by mental health problems at some point in their lives, this is an issue that touches the lives of us all.
It seems that there is so much more on for flute and whistle players to attend these days and it is great to see that the inaugural Alex Green Weekend will take place in Aberdeen 1-3 March. The weekend celebrates the NE whistler with an impressive lineup of concerts and workshops organised by The Elphinstone Institute, which is part of the University of Aberdeen.
Proceeds from the event will go towards supporting the