FluteFling returned to Aberdeen 31 October – 02 November 2025 with Hamish Napier and Kirsten Allstaff supported by and in partnership with the Elphinstone Institute and Friends of the Elphinstone Institute.

FluteFling is delighted to announce another stunning line-up for the Aberdeen FluteFling 2025. We will be joined by award-winning Hamish Napier, Kirsten Allstaff, Scottish-born founder of the Online Academy of Irish Music. Following the success of their involvement with the Edinburgh FluteFling this year, we immediately invited them to Aberdeen.

Hamish will be headlining a concert on the evening of Friday 31st, with Kirsten supporting. Saturday 1st workshops will see the time split into two with both tutors swapping teaching groups. On the morning of Sunday 2nd Hamish will take a single workshop.

As always, we will have sessions each day at The Blue Lamp, which is where the concert also takes place. Teaching takes place at the MacRobert Building, University of Aberdeen.

Tickets

THIS EVENT HAS ENDED

Weekend bundle: £80/ £128 plus fees
https://aberdeenflutefling2025bundle.brownpapertickets.com
Friday concert, Saturday workshops, Sunday workshop
Update: 4 tickets remaining, now only available at the concert on the door.

Friday concert only: £9 (Junior)*/ £15/ £18 plus fees
https://hamishnapier-aberdeenff25.brownpapertickets.com
*Junior tickets (14-18 year old) only when accompanied by an adult.
Update: Tickets available on the door only. Selling quickly.

Saturday workshops only: £50/ £75
https://aberdeenflutefling25saturday.brownpapertickets.com
Note: The Saturday workshops are strictly limited to 30 people in total.
Update: 6 tickets remaining, available on the door only
Times: 10:00-17:00 (registration 09:30)
Venue: MacRobert Building (View)
581 King Street
Aberdeen AB24 5UA
United Kingdom

Sunday workshop only: £24/ £35
https://aberdeenflutefling25sunday.brownpapertickets.com
Note: The Sunday workshop is strictly limited to 30 people in total.
Update: 4 tickets remaining, available on the door only
Times: 10:00-12:15 (registration 09:30)
Venue: MacRobert Building (View)
581 King Street
Aberdeen AB24 5UA
United Kingdom

Accommodation

We don’t have any deals, but people have found the Holiday Inn Express in central Aberdeen to be suitable, while some people are planning to stay at the Ibis Hotel, also very central and with its own car parking.

What’s on: Friday concert

Hamish Napier (flutes and whistles) in Concert with Jordan Neill (guitar, pipes) (Scotland, Speyside)

Support from Kirsten Allstaff (flutes and whistles) and Maitiú Curley (concertina) (Ireland, County Clare).

HAMISH NAPIER is a Scottish folk multi-instrumentalist and composer from Grantown-on-Spey. He is inspired by the heritage and nature of his native landscape of Strathspey.

His album The Woods explores the flora and fauna of Scotland’s native forests. It won Album of the Year at the Scots Trad Music Awards and is the third album in his Strathspey Pentalogy – an ambitious project to produce 5-albums in celebration of his homeland, following on from the first two in the series, The River (for the river Spey) and The Railway (for the old Speyside railway line).

In this concert Hamish will also share a few of the new pieces from forthcoming album no.4, The Hill. Humorous, engaging and heart-warming, Hamish’s performances often incorporate poems and stories about nature, folklore and communities.

JORDAN NEIL is an acclaimed bagpiper and guitarist from Aviemore, Scotland. Similarly to Hamish he attended Fèis Spè in his youth, and is very much in-demand as a musician in his native Badenoch & Strathspey, and the Inverness area.

Jordan Neil will be performing with Hamish Napier at Aberdeen FluteFling (c) Jordan Neill

Jordan has worked alongside the Cairngorm Ceilidh Band and regularly plays in his folk duo Làirig. He attained a bachelor’s degree in Applied Music at the University of the Highlands & Islands, studying under professional musicians Simon Bradley, Iain MacDonald (Glenuig), Matheu Watson and Anna-Wendy Stevenson. Jordan has a passion for the great outdoors and hillwalking and is a keen amateur landscape photographer.

Kirsten Allstaff

Kirsten Allstaff will be performing with Maitiú Curley at the Aberdeen FluteFling. (c) Kirsten Allstaff

Scottish-born Kirsten Allstaff is one of the founders and directors of The Online Academy of Irish Music. She is an acclaimed flute and tin-whistle player and has played music throughout Ireland, Europe, North America and Asia with various Irish dance shows and groups.

Now living in the traditional music heartland of County Clare, Kirsten will be joined on stage by her son, up and coming concertina player Maitiú Curley.

What’s on: Weekend workshops

This year’s tutors are Hamish Napier and Kirsten Allstaff who will both teach 2 groups of 15 students on the Saturday. Hamish will also teach a group of 30 on Sunday morning.

Hamish Napier

Hamish Napier will be teaching at Aberdeen FluteFling. (c) Hamish Napier

Hamish Napier is a Scottish folk flautist, pianist, singer, educator and composer inspired by the heritage and nature of his native landscape of Strathspey.

5 years ago, after nearly 2 decades living and working in Glasgow and Boston’s vibrant, multi-genre music scenes, he returned home to his native Strathspey to begin his ‘Strathspey Pentalogy’ – an ambitious 10-year project to produce 5 landscape and heritage inspired albums. The River (‘16) and The Railway (‘18) received 5- stars in national newspapers. The Woods (’20) won ‘Album of the Year’ in the Scots Trad Music Awards, and Hamish contributed significantly to two other recent winners Black Cuillin (‘23) and Sandwood (’18) by Duncan Chisholm, with whom he has a successful long-standing co-writing partnership with.

Hamish has collaborated with leading artists such as Ross Ainslie, Donald Shaw, Julie Fowlis, Blue Rose Code and Martyn Bennett. He has performed several times on national television and radio – and has presented BBC Radio Scotland’s Travelling Folk programme.

He has appeared at festivals, theatres, music camps and universities throughout the UK, Europe and North America. He strives for a balance between tradition and innovation, celebrating and respecting Scotland’s rich musical heritage while transcending boundaries, with jazz, classical and modern music production techniques.

His work is often interdisciplinary: syncing music to landscape films or incorporating poems and stories. Hamish produced a film ‘Strathspey Stories’ with David Francis that premiered at the Scottish International Storytelling Festival. He is the writer and voice of over 10 hours of historical audio stories for smartphone travel apps ‘Highland Discovery’ and ‘Badenoch the Storylands’ for Transport Scotland and Badenoch Heritage.

Over the last 3 years, he has been highly involved in the community arts in Cairngorms National Park, particularly through the Storylands Sessions event series co-created with writer Merryn Glover – a hugely successful performance hub for poetry, stories, music, art and song for all ages. Bandcamp page here

Hamish’s website is here | Bandcamp page here

Kirsten Allstaff

Kirsten Allstaff will be teaching at the Aberdeen FluteFling (c) Kirsten Allstaff

Scottish-born Kirsten Allstaff is one of the founders and directors of The Online Academy of Irish Music. She is an acclaimed flute and tin-whistle player and has played music throughout Ireland, Europe, North America and Asia with various Irish dance shows and groups.

Upon graduating from the University of Glasgow with an M.A.Honours degree in Celtic Civilisations and Scottish History, she went on to study traditional Irish music at Ballyfermot College, Dublin. Shortly after it’s completion she began teaching and lecturing on The Northern Rhythms Program of Music in Falcarragh, Co. Donegal.

In 2002, she graduated with a First-Class Honours Masters Degree in Traditional Irish Music Performance from the University of Limerick (U.L) and subsequently began tutoring flute and whistle at The Irish World Academy of Music and Dance. She taught there for 10 years before moving to Co. Clare where she currently resides, playing sessions and teaching online and locally.

Since graduating from U.L, she has toured extensively with various internationally acclaimed bands and dance shows – Gaelforce Dance, Celtic Legends, Rhythm of the Dance and most recently Clare based bands The Fiddle Case and Los Paddys De Las Pampas. Gallowglass is her debut solo album which blends the music of her Scottish and Irish homeland . FOUR / 4, the follow up album, as the name may imply, is dedicated to reels.

Kirsten’s website is here.

George Ormiston

Once again, we welcome back George Ormiston, who will be on hand to discuss his flutes and whistles, repairs and more. George will have a few of his flutes to try out and will be available all day.

George’s website is here.

Weekend programme: Subject to changes

FRIDAY CONCERT

Doors 19:30
Concert 20:00-21:45 approx (including interval)

SATURDAY Workshops

Venue: MacRobert Building, Aberdeen University Rooms- MR055, MR250/MR251/MR252

0930 – 1000: Registration (MR055)
1000 – 1100: Morning Workshop – Tutor A or B (1h)
1100 – 1130: Break (30 mins)
1130 – 1230: Morning workshop cont. (1h)
1230 – 1330: Lunch (60 mins)
1330 – 1530: Afternoon Workshop Tutor – B or A (2h; breaks can be included at the discretion of the tutor)
1530 – 1600: Break (30 mins)
1600 – 1700: Talk by Ian Russell about the Cairnbulg Temperance Flute Bands. (Room MR005 up to 50 seated.)
1700 – 1730: Clean down/tidy up & End

SUNDAY WORKSHOP

Venue: MacRobert Building, Aberdeen University (Room MR055)

09:30-10:00: Registration
0930 – 1000: Registration (MR055)
1000 – 1100: Workshop (1hr)
1100 – 1120: Break (20 mins)
1120 – 1215: Workshop cont. (55 mins)
1215 – 1245: Clean down & tidy up & End

The workshops are 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

Workshop resources

Some resources have been supplied in advance by the tutors and can be found here.

Please note that the resources pages are password protected and all ticket holders will have been sent the relevant password by email. If you cannot find the password, please check your junk or spam folder.

Content posted October 17th

Safety

FluteFling takes people’s health and safety seriously. Please refer our our policy and guidance on COVID and air-borne respiratory diseases (PDF). This and further information can be found on our Health and Safety Guidelines page.

If you have any concerns, please get in touch.

Sessions

Friday: Details coming soon.

Saturday: The Blue Lamp upstairs lounge. 2030-midnight approx.

Sunday: The Blue Lamp upstairs lounge. 1300-1600 approx.

Dougie Pincock has started compiling a list of common FluteFling session tunes, complete with sheet music and audio. You can access that here.

Venues

The Friday concert takes place at The Blue Lamp, 121 Gallowgate, Aberdeen AB25 1BU

Saturday and Sunday workshops take place at MacRobert Building, University of Aberdeen, 581 King Street, Aberdeen AB24 5UA

For visitors to Aberdeen, some information about travel in Aberdeen city centre can be found here.

Join the newsletter to hear announcements about this and similar events first.