Edinburgh FluteFling 10th Anniversary Weekend 19-21 April 2024
A great turnout for the Edinburgh FluteFling in April (c) Gordon Turnbull
FluteFling celebrated its 10th Anniversary 19-21 April in Edinburgh, with guests Calum Stewart, Dougie Pincock, Sharon Newton Creasey, dancer Sophie Stephenson and flute maker George Ormiston.
This page is an archive of the weekend.
The weekend opens with a Friday evening concert from Calum Stewart featuring Sophie Stephenson and special guests. Saturday continues with a day of workshops for flute and whistle and Scottish step dance. There are evening sessions across the weekend at the Heart of Newhaven, ending with a Sunday lunchtime session at Leith Depot.
It all takes place by the sea at the wonderful Heart of Newhaven Centre.
Tickets are now available, with strictly limited spaces for the instrumental workshops. Please note that dance and instrumental workshops are separate. Look out for more announcements, special guests and arrangements here on the website, through the mailing list, and on the Facebook group chat.
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Tickets
Event now ended.
What’s on: Friday
Calum Stewart in Concert with Luc McNally (guitar) and Sophie Stevenson (step dance)
Calum Stewart is an award winning Uilleann Piper, flautist and composer.
Calum’s distinct musical voice – expressed through the wild, shimmering sound of the Irish Uilleann Pipes and the rich and powerful tones of the Wooden Flute, has been developed through collaborations within the Scottish and Irish traditions.
His most recent albums; True North (2023) and Tales from the North (2017) bring together traditional melodies and lyrical compositions, inspired by the landscape and heritage of Calum’s native North of Scotland.
Calum will be accompanied by Luc McNally, the Glasgow-based guitarist bouzouki player, and singer originally from Co. Durham, a two-time finalist in the BBC Radio Scotlands Young Traditional Musician Award who has played with Hannah Rarity, Iona Fyfe and RURA, among many others.
Joining them will be the stellar step dancer Sophie Stephenson, enhancing and underpinning the rhythms of the traditional dance melodies with her energetic and percussive style.
Calum and Sophie will both be teaching workshops on Saturday.
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What’s on: Saturday
Step dance workshops with Sophie Stephenson
Beginners workshop & Advanced workshop £12 each/ Combined ticket £20
Join leading Scottish step dancer Sophie Stephenson for percussive dance workshops covering traditional strathspey, jig and reel steps.
There will be two workshops – one for Beginners and one for Intermediate/ Advanced dancers, with a break in between.
Tickets are for one of the single workshops, or a combined ticket is available for those wishing to attend both.
Sophie is also performing with the Calum Stewart Trio on Friday night. These workshops are part of the FluteFling weekend and all dance workshop ticket holders are welcome to attend a joint demonstration by Calum Stewart and Sophie Stephenson at the end of the day.
More on Sophie from her website.
Dance workshop timetable:
1200-1300: Beginners
1300-1400: Break
1400-1500: Intermediate/ Advanced
1600-1700: Demonstration with Sophie Stephenson and Calum Stewart (open to all workshop ticket holders)
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What’s on: Saturday
Flute & whistle workshops
SOLD OUT
The workshop is open to Boehm system (metal, classical) musicians and those playing simple system wooden flutes (keyed or unkeyed) alike. This is an opportunity to explore and develop your playing in the context of Scottish traditional music, whichever instrument you play.
Whistlers should be playing whistles or low whistles in D and be beyond the complete beginner stage. There will also be space for Beginner flute players with 1-3 years experience as well as those with more than 3 years experience. These are rough guides only, check out our FAQs or please get in touch if you are not sure.
Topics covered include:
- different playing styles
- tune types
- technique
- breathing, phrasing and tone improvement
- history
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Tutors
This year’s tutors will be Calum Stewart, Sharon Newton Creasey and Dougie Pincock.
Calum Stewart is an internationally known flute player and Uilleann Piper who we are delighted to bring to one of our FluteFling weekends for the first time.
Hailing from Moray, he was voted MG ALBA Scottish Traditional Instrumentalist of the Year 2018 and has several solo albums and collaborations to his name, including with acclaimed fiddler Lauren MacColl, and as part of supergroup Mànran. His Earlywood CD, was a breakthrough recording in solo Scottish traditional flute. His most recent album True North features Uilleann pipes and continues the blend of old tunes and his own compositions.
Top-Bottom: Calum Stewart, Dougie Pincock, Sharon Newton Creasey
Sharon Newton Creasey
Core tutor and co-founder Sharon returns to Edinburgh with her experience of playing traditional music on Boehm system flute, piccolo and whistle. Sharon’s teaching is essential for anyone, but particularly for those crossing over into traditional music on the Boehm system flute.
Her extensive knowledge of the music of Fermanagh and interest in digging into old music collections and manuscripts always produces rare and unusual material to the workshops. Sharon has recently been working on a recording, has typeset and edited The FluteFling Collection and may have copies of The Hidden Fermanagh book for sale, for which she was a co-editor.
Dougie Pincock has been a generous and active supporter of FluteFling events and we welcome him to teach in Edinburgh this year following involvement in Aberdeen, and in Edinburgh last year with his talk on Highland piping and flute playing. A piper, whistler, flute and piccolo player, Dougie is another former member of The Battlefield Band and also of Kentigern. Dougie is also known as a broadcaster and until recently was Director of the National Centre of Traditional Music Excellence in Plockton.
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Weekend programme
FRIDAY
The weekend opens in style with a Friday night concert at the Heart of Newhaven, featuring The Calum Stewart Trio, joined by some special guests. A post-concert session continues the evening, making for a memorable start to the weekend.
Friday Concert & session
- 1915: Doors open, Victoria Hall, BYOB
- 1945-2130: approx Concert, including support and Interval
- 2145-2330: approx Session (free, non concert attendees sign in on door)
SATURDAY
A day of instrumental workshops on the Saturday sees FluteFling return to our format of three tutors and three groups, with the groups rotating between between all of the tutors. Tutors are flute, low whistle and Uilleann pipes maestro Calum Stewart; FluteFling co-founder and foremost exponent of the Boehm flute Sharon Newton Creasey; and piper, flute player, whistler and broadcaster Dougie Pincock, who previously headed up the School for Traditional Music Excellence at Plockton, has taught at Aberdeen FluteFling.
Scottish flute maker George Ormiston will be on hand all day for advice, with some spaces for a flute clinic (sign up on the day) as well.
FluteFling is also delighted to present Scottish step dance workshops with Sophie Stephenson. Suitable for beginners and intermediate/ advanced levels, sign up for either class or both. Sophie will be performing on the Friday night as part of the Calum Stewart Trio and will join Calum for a demonstration at the end of the instrumental workshops. Please note that while it is possible to join both the Dance and Instrumental workshops, it will be necessary to purchase separate tickets for both.
Tom Oakes leads a workshop at the Heart of Newhaven Community venue as part of FluteFling Edinburgh weekend 2023.
A Saturday evening session will take place in the same venue. Please note that the Friday and Saturday sessions will be ticketed but free. A workshop ticket allows automatic entry to the session for that day.
Saturday Schedule (all at Heart of Newhaven Community)
Workshops
- 0930-1000: Registration, Anchor Hub
- 1000-1115: Workshop 1
- 1115-1145: Break (30 mins)
- 1145-1300: Workshop 2
- 1300-1400: Lunch (60 mins)
- 1400-1515: Workshop 3
- 1515-1545: Break (30 mins)
- 1600-1700: Demonstration with Calum Stewart and Sophie Stephenson
- 1700-1730: End
Evening:
- Victoria Lounge, BYOB (free, non workshop attendees sign in on door)
- 2000-2100 approx George Ormiston talk c.1h
- 2100-2330 Session
- 2330 End
Sunday Schedule
The weekend traditionally winds up with an optional brunch and farewell session open to all. In order to accommodate bigger numbers, we have moved from Sandy Bells to Leith Depot. Other venues and timings will be confirmed nearer the time.
- 1200-1430: Farewell session, Leith Depot, Leith Walk; then on to other venue options, including…
- 1500- early evening: The Waverley Bar (off the Royal Mile, near Waverley Station)
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Workshop resources
Some resources have been supplied in advance by the tutors closer to the workshops. Please note that the resources page is password protected and all ticket holders will have been sent the password by email. Instrumental workshop resources…
Sessions
Sessions will be taking place across the weekend and are free and open to all. If you aren’t coming to the concert or workshops, please consider making a donation. For a note on what to expect at our sessions, please see our FAQs.
Friday
2000-2330 approx: Post concert session, Victoria Hall, Heart of Newhaven
Saturday
2000-2330 approx: evening session, Heart of Newhaven
Sunday
1200-1430: Farewell session, Leith Depot — 138-142 Leith Walk, Edinburgh EH6 5DT
Event health and safety
We take everyone’s safety seriously and so would like to draw your attention to our guidelines relating to Covid and other Health and safety matters.
Please also refer to the page prior to attending as it may be updated to reflect any changes in circumstances.
Venues
All Friday and Saturday events, including sessions, take place at Heart of Newhaven, which is situated close to Newhaven harbour, to the North of the city on the Firth of Forth. The Sunday session will be at Leith Depot.
Bus, tram and rail: There are plenty of good connections around Edinburgh. Waverley station is closest to Newhaven. Lothian Regional Transport have a good bus and tram app and their website has a journey planner. Buses have contactless payment, which is capped at a daily rate. There is a direct tram from Princes Street to Newhaven.
Bike: There are lots of quiet cycle routes around Edinburgh. Use the Edinburgh Cycle Streets web site and app to plan your journey. See the Spokes website for other information on Edinburgh Cycling.
Car: For people travelling by car, Newhaven is well connected. There is mostly free on-street parking, but do check on restrictions.
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