In keeping with the spirit of improvement and newness, and to reflect Martin Doyle’s high standards of craftsmanship, a new business card and brochure have been created for Martin Doyle Flutes.

The new business card and a four page brochure are of course available in hard copy, but PDF files have also been added to Martin’s website for those who would like to download them from the web. They can be found on the Contact page.

Credit and gratitude for the graphic design work goes to Hayden Bell of the Sri Chinmoy Centre in New Zealand.

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We have just added a German introduction page to Martin Doyle Flutes. A big THANK YOU to Jwalanta Voelckner (aka: The Snow Lover) of the Sri Chinmoy Centre in Germany for kindly taking the time to translate Martin Doyle’s homepage into German. Vielen Dank Jwlanta!

In keeping with the internationalism of the internet and the universality of music, we are developing introduction pages in seven languages for Martin Doyle’s web site. First to be added is a Spanish page which will soon be joined by Irish, Japanese, Italian, French and German pages – English being the default language.

A big THANK YOU to Hareen Basagoiti of the Sri Chinmoy Centre in Spain for kindly taking the time to translate Martin Doyle’s homepage into Spanish. Muchas gracias Hareen!

“Music is a universal language. It is through music that the universal feeling of oneness can be achieved in the twinkling of an eye.”
– Sri Chinmoy.

02/06/2008:

New Testimonial:

Martin Doyle has just received a very kind testimonial from David Thompson who is a flute player and member of The Belfast and District Set Dancing & Traditional Music Society from Bangor, Northern Ireland. It reads:

“The Celtic style flute without tuning slide is the most satisfying flute I’ve ever played. It has a crisp and full low register — the low D really honks! I love the simplicity of this flutes appearance, yet the tone I can get out of it is truly awe inspiring and it’s always in tune. This is ‘flute minimalism’ at it’s finest!”

This and other testimonials can be viewed on Martin’s Testimonials and Testimonials 2 pages.

New Agent:

The Ghandarva Loka World Music Store in Christchurch, New Zealand, is now stocking Martin Doyle flutes and links have been added to Gandharva Loka from Martin Doyle’s Flutes and Links pages.

Gandharva:
A class of heavenly beings, famed particularly for their musical skills.
Loka:
World, habitat, realm or plane of existence.

Gandharva Loka, Christchurch, New Zealand

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Martin Doyle has not performed at the Royal Albert Hall, but he has been on the stage. So have his flutes…

In 2005, Sri Chinmoy offered a concert dedicated to global harmony at the Royal Albert Hall in London and Martin Doyle went to see the Master perform. One of Sri Chinmoy’s students from New York had commissioned Martin to make a flute for Sri Chinmoy and he was invited to stay behind for a private post-concert function and an opportunity to present the instrument to Sri Chinmoy personally. It was a special D flat keyed flute made of African Blackwood.

After the concert Sri Chinmoy remained on the stage while his students – several hundred in number that had come from all over the world to be at the concert – were seated in the auditorium. Martin assembled and presented the new flute to Sri Chinmoy and the Master played it for a while. He was very pleased to meet Martin and very grateful to him for the care and effort that went into creating the one-off flute. For his part, Martin was very honoured to have met Sri Chinmoy in such a way and commented that it was a unique moment in his life.

Martin Doyle watches as Sri Chinmoy tries the new flute.

The second event connecting Martin Doyle with the Royal Albert Hall was also a concert but not one that he personally attended. Two of his flutes were present though.

On May the 19th Boris Purushottama Grebenshikov returned to the Royal Albert Hall with with a large number of musicians from a wide variety of musical backgrounds. The concert was dedicated to Sri Chinmoy, who passed away in October of 2007.

In a prolific career that has spanned almost four decades, BG (Boris Grebenshikov) has continued to enchant his audiences with new sounds and a lyrical language that has earned him the affectionate title “Poet Laureate of Russia”.

Accompanied by an international ensemble of musicians performing on instruments from the sitar and tabla to the violin and flute, he presents a fusion of his own classic folk melodies with sounds from around the world.

“Music is an ocean. I just venture into the ocean and follow the waves.”
– Boris Purushottama Grebenshikov.

Two of the guest musicians who performed with Boris Purushottama Grebenshikov on the 19th were Premik Russell Tubbs and Brian Finnegan – both flute players and owners of Martin Doyle flutes.

Premik is a flutist, saxophonist, composer, arranger and producer. He has been Sri Chinmoy’s meditation student since the 1970s and his music reflects great depth of talent and a clear spiritual perspective. An album Premik produced with his good friend Shambhu Vineberg can be heard here: Equinox.

[Premik] has worked with Carlos Santana, Whitney Houston, Herbie Hancock, John McLaughlin, Narada Michael Walden, and Lonnie Liston-Smith among others. He is equally at home in popular, jazz, R&B, new age and experimental styles. His composing credits also include music for sports documentaries, sketch comedies and corporate training films. (Source)

Brian Finnegan is a UK based whistle and flute player from Armagh, Northern Ireland who currently plays with Flook, founded the band Upstairs in a Tent, and has also released a solo album entitled When the Party’s Over.

“[Brian Finnegan] stands out, in a nation of wonderful flute players, as much more than a technical virtuoso, his playing having the freewheeling lightness of touch and inspired musical understanding that flows into improvisation in real time, at reel speed.” – Norman Chalmers, The List. (Source)

There was a strong Irish influence in the concert. John-Joe Kelly, a Bodhrán player and also a member of Flook, was present among the musicians on stage that night – as was one of the world’s very few female Uilleann pipers, Becky Taylor.

By all accounts, Boris Purushottama Grebenshikov’s concert offered something for everyone – including flute maker Martin Doyle. His relationship with the Royal Albert and some of the musicians that have performed there has taken shape through his carefully hand-crafted wooden flutes – in the mould of the often silent role played by the instrument makers of this world.

Boris Purushottama Grebenshikov returns to the Royal Albert Hall

Related Links:

• Concert at Royal Albert Hall – by Tejvan Pettinger who was at the concert.
• Boris Purushottama Grebenshikov – Sumangali Morhall was also at the concert.
• Interview With Boris Purushottama Grebenshikov – Sri Chinmoy TV.
• Boris Grebenshikov – beyond all limitations – by Shane Magee.
• Boris Purushottama Grebenshikov Albert Hall pt1 – 1 of 6 video clips on YouTube.
• Boris Purushottama Grebenshikov – photos from the 2008 concert
• About the Musicians

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Two new testimonials have just been added to Martin Doyle’s website. Both are from flute players in Japan who are involved in the Irish Traditional Music scene there. The first testimonial is from Yusuke Usuda who writes:

“I am very pleased with the two flutes Martin! I played the D flute for the set dancing with my friends last Saturday evening. I was pleasantly surprised at the excellent responses and the great capacity of the tone colours. For me, these flutes are saikou — the best!”

The second testimonial is from Isao ‘Paddy’ Moriyasu who, with his wife Masako, aka ‘Bridgit’, spend time in County Clare each year and have made two CDs of Irish traditional music. Paddy has this to say about his Martin Doyle Flutes:

“Martin is a great friend of mine. He’s not only an excellent flute maker but also (believe it or not) a master of the Japanese martial art of Aikido !! He regularly visits Japan for intensive Aikido training. I started working on a recording project called ‘The Complete Works of Turlough O’Carolan in 2007 — 7 CDs in all and have already finished recording 3 of them so far. I’ve decided to use Martin’s D and C flutes for the recording as his instruments always give me loads of inspiration and freedom. With his lovely flutes, I can explore a whole new world of Carolan music. Thanks Martin !! Looking forward to playing some tunes with you in Tokyo.”

I will add a blog post about Paddy in the near future because he is a very interesting character.

Martin Doyle’s testimonials page has been split into two parts which can be viewed using these links: Testimonials and Testimonials 2.

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08/05/2008: The home page of Martin Doyle Flutes was updated today. A Flute Information Quickfind panel was added for the convenience of our visitors. We have also tweaked the Homepage here and there and added a new image of Martin Doyle playing the flute.

Quite a number of new images have also been added to Martin Doyle’s Flickr album: Flute maker Martin Doyle.

A page regarding the care and maintenance of wooden flutes has also been added: Wooden Flute Care.

Gwenn Frin is a wooden flute player who has been assisting Martin Doyle for the past few months and learning about the art of flute making. Originally from Brittany, Gwenn fell in love with the simple system wooden flute – aka Irish flute – at an early age. The instrument has been an major part of her life ever since and has brought her to many parts if the world including Ireland, Korea and the United States.

Gwenn first performed with the Cercle Celtique de Rennes (who are coming to Cork in July of this year) where she was introduced to the traditional music and dances of Brittany before playing for the dancers themselves. Her true professional debut were with the band Beaj Iskis in the early 1990s, which toured the Fest Noz scene in Brittany for four years. Gwenn moved to Galway, Ireland in 1998 drawn to the roots of her passion. She took classes with renowned flute player Harry Bradley.

In 1999, Gwenn moved to Dublin to concentrate solely on her flute playing while completing a Higher National Diploma In Traditional Music performance (Ceoltóir) directed by flute player Paul McGrattan. This last experience led her to doing a Master’s degree in Music and Media Technologies in Trinity College, Dublin. These amazing two years transformed her musical understanding and experience and opened up her musical horizons not only to contemporary and electroacoustic music, but also to composition.

Gwenn now lives near Bell Harbour in the heart of the Burren in County Clare. There on Ireland’s wild and beautiful west coast, the culture of Irish traditional music is rich, strong and plentiful. She leads a weekly Irish traditional music session with guitarist Rob Steine in Kinvara, County Galway. Also interested in Indian classical Hindustani music, she spent last winter in India studying Bansuri flute with Ravishankar Mishra.

Irish traditional music is mostly an oral based tradition with the tunes being passed from one person to the next. As part of that tradition, Gwenn has taught flute and tin-whistle to adults and children in groups and individual classes. Having studied both traditional and classical music (piano), she combines both methods to teach pupils the instrument and a basic knowledge of music theory. Her method emphasises oral memory and pitch.

The west of Ireland offers many opportunities for outdoor activities and Gwenn enjoys keeping fit and healthy through a number of physical pursuits. These include swimming, sea-kayaking, surfing, hill-running, cycling and road races. Gwenn recently competed in a 10 km race and was first woman home with a respectable time of 48 minutes. In 2007 she finished the Dublin City Marathon in 3 hours and 55 minutes.

Gwenn Frin and Martin Doyle test new flutes in Martin’s workshop.

Some of Gwenn’s musical influences:

• Emmanuel Frin of Topolovo
• Yannick Alory
• Jean Michel Veillon
• Harry Bradley
• Ravishanka Mishra
• Alain Genty
• Brian Fleming

Bands Gwenn has been involved with:

• De Jimbé
• Jack Harrison & Co
• Hakunamatata

Gwenn particularly favours listening to:

• Barzaz
• Kila
• Didier Squiban
• Flook
• Julie Feeney
• Susan McKeown
• Rónán Ó Snodaigh

Contact:

For more information, kindly contact Gwenn Frin.

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By Shardul.

Here I am in County Clare, Ireland, and staying with Martin Doyle for a few days. I brought Martin three sticks of Kanuka wood that were kindly given to me by Paul Whinray – a renowned New Zealand recorder maker who lives in west Auckland. The Kanuka wood was cut, bored and turned into round sticks in the late 80s and well cured.

Martin set me to work on preparing the sticks and with the kind guidance of his son Ógi, and Martin doing all the critical work, we produced a wonderful flute. It has a lovely tone (a little milder than the hardwoods like African Blackwood and Cocus) that I am sure will develop nicely with playing. The end cap of the flute is made of Cocus wood. Here’s a look at it:

Kanuka Flute – click on the image to see a larger version on Flickr

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30/04/2008: A new page has been added to Martin Doyle Flutes which offers information and prices on the thin-wall wooden head joints hand-crafted by Martin Doyle for concert flutes.

View: Wooden Head Joints.

The Site Map has also been updated.

A Martin Doyle wooden (cocus) head joint on a Muramatsu concert flute.

More images can be found on Martin Doyle’s Flickr album:
Wooden Head Joints for Concert Flutes

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