Aberdeen FluteFling 2025

Saturday workshop attendees (c) Linda Harkness/ Peter Saunders

This year the Aberdeen FluteFling rang a few changes over the first weekend of November as we ran our first event since becoming a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation at the end of the summer. Hamish Napier and Kirsten Alstaff had been part of the Edinburgh FluteFling in March and happily both were also able to be the focus of the Aberdeen weekend.

Some of the successful elements of the Edinburgh FluteFling weekends of recent times were introduced as we opened with a new Friday night concert. The workshops took place at the Macrobert Building, generously supported by The Elphinstone Institute and Scottish Culture and Traditions (SC&T). Our thanks to Lewis Brown for his hospitality at the The Blue Lamp for the Friday concert and both sets of sessions; to Kirsty Campbell for being our Elphinstone Rep; to Lynn Gowans for delivery of the SC&T tea and coffee facilities and various goodies, including scones and rowies. We look forward to the opportunity of working with them again next year.

Friday concert

Smallpipes and flute — Hamish Napier and Jordan Neill (c) John Crawford

Kirsten opened the well-attended Friday evening concert at the Blue Lamp alongside her son Maitiú Curley on Anglo concertina, focusing on a mixture of Scottish and Irish repertoire that reflected her musical background and experience. With some very fine selections that caught the ear and the heart, from driving jigs and reels to slow airs. An absolute highlight was their rendition of James Scott Skinner’s The Mathematician, the third octave high notes of which would strike fear deep into any self-respecting traditional flute player. The audience held their breath and were enthusiastic at the success. Hear more of Kirsten’s music at her website.

Accompanying Kirsten and Maitiú on guitar was Jordan Neill who was the busiest musician of the night, anchoring the music with sensitive accompaniment, but also performing sets of tunes on the smallpipes with Hamish Napier in the second half of the concert. The schedule was switched around to allow the pipes to shine before the temperature affected the tuning and Jordan switched back to guitar. The blend of Hamish’s boxwood C flute and Jordan’s C pipes was rich and unusual, and also quite special.

As a composer and arranger, Hamish Napier draws upon his deep interest in Highland culture, language and folklore and his set included original tunes celebrating particular trees and their cultural significance. The sensitivity of his performance included the shading and bending of notes through quarter tones with great control, alongside punchier melodies such as the ever-popular Cheery Groove. Hamish’s latest project celebrating the landscape is The Hill and you can contribute to his Crowdfunder here.

Hamish Napier, Kirsten Allstaff, Jordan Neill and Maitiú Curley performing the encore (c) John Crawford

The encore saw Kirsten and Maitiú return to the stage to join Jordan and Hamish for a rousing set of Irish tunes that saw some delicious interplay between the flutes. Maitiú at one point played what Kirsten referred to as a “deconstructed single reed concertina”, which was revealed to be a jaw harp (aka Jew’s harp, or trump in Scots).

Workshops

Kirsten Allstaff leading one of the workshops (c) Peter Saunders

This year the workshops took place at the MacRobert building of the University of Aberdeen, with generous support from The Elphinstone Institute for the accommodation, and from Scottish Culture and Traditions for the teas, coffees and assorted treats, including butteries. These were all appreciated by the busiest Aberdeen weekend for a few years.

With just two teachers on the Saturday this year, students were able to enjoy extended time with each tutor. Similarly, the tutors were able to dig deeper into their teaching. It proved to be a popular arrangement and is one that the organisers will explore in future.

Flute bands of NE Scotland

Saturday’s talk was a presentation given by Professor Ian Russell, formerly Director of the Elphinstone Institute, on the flute bands of NE Scotland. A little-known living tradition with origins in the Temperance movement, the villages of St Combs, Cairnbulg and Inverallochy walk to celebrate the community at Old New Year. This was a version of a talk Ian gave at the Aberdeen flute weekend in 2003, long before FluteFling and it will have been new to most.

Three flute players representing musicians from flute bands of the NE communities perform music from their repertoire (c) John Crawford

Normally accompanied by a side and bass drum, the flutes play a mixture of hymns and secular tunes. Audience members were treated to three representatives of the communities rounding off the day by treating us all to some of their repertoire.

A Bonny Bunch of Roses

A bonny bunch of Roses — a selection of Rudall and Rose flutes from Martin’s collection (c) Martin Duckworth

During the weekend of Aberdeen Flutefling 2025 participants were given the opportunity to view and sample “A bonnie bunch of roses”. This took the form of a small collection of Rudall and Rose flutes dating from the mid 1800s.

The display of nine flutes, dated between 1832 and 1856, demonstrated the wide variations which the company put into their instruments. A number of the flute players took the opportunity to run through “a few notes” and declare their favourites! The one common element was that all the flutes were in full playing condition and were expertly crafted over 180 years ago.

Those present were able to feel the weight of Patent headjoints, try flutes with small, medium and large hole formats and wonder at the flamboyant use of silver fittings. Of particular interest was an “F” flute, reputed to be the only known Rudall and Rose 8 key flute of it’s type.

We would like to thank our regular Fluteflinger, Martin Duckworth, for making the display possible.

Sunday workshop

The Sunday workshop is still new to FluteFling, the first time being in Edinburgh earlier this year when Kirsten led this for us. It proved to be very popular and so it was again this time as Hamish took a turn with a busy room. The focus was on a three-part arrangement of his piece The Dance, looking at the skills required for multipart melody lines, reading music, listening and playing together and revealing glimpses into the world of professional recording and performance.

Hamish Napier leads a busy Sunday workshop (c) John Crawford

Sessions

Whistles, guitar and cello on Saturday night (c) Gordon Turnbull

The Saturday night and Sunday afternoon sessions were held at The Blue Lamp once more. The sight and sound of so many flutes and whistles never fails to amaze and the welcome added textures of guitar, smallpipes and even cello from Su-a Lee, who joined the session after performing on Saturday.

Thanks everyone!

Thanks once again to everyone who was involved in putting this wonderful weekend together and to all of those who came to the concert, workshops and sessions. From Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire, to Inversess, Shetland, Edinburgh, London and Dublin, you all helped to make this a resounding success and we look forward to seeing you again in Aberdeen or Edinburgh.

Next Event: Edinburgh 27-29 March 2026

The team are now looking towards making the 2026 Edinburgh event a success. The event will take place 27-29 March 2026 at the Heart of Newhaven Centre once more, so look out for news of tickets going on sale. We’re also making early plans for Aberdeen 2026.

Please let us know if you have any specific ideas or suggestions for future events. As always, make sure you are signed up to the mailing list to hear about it all first before tickets go on general sale.