About KiwiCelt
May 1st, 2007 by Shardul
Greetings – my name is Shardul and I live in New Zealand. I have been playing Martin Doyle’s wooden flutes since 2001 and have always had a great love for music and singing; especially for the folk and acoustic styles of music. My father was a big fan of Woody Guthrie, and of folk and country music in general. He had a huge collection of old time records and I believe he called hall dances in the Auckland area in his younger days. Unfortunately however, none of my family members were musicians, instead preferring to dance. I tried learning a range of instruments growing up, but being a lazy student and with no-one to practise with, I stuck to singing along with my Dad’s recorded friends. Which was fun!
In 1984, drawn by a lingering curiosity for the contemplative art of meditation, I became a student of the internationally renowned spiritual master and musician Sri Chinmoy. Deeply moved by the haunting beauty of his meditative compositions, I naturally began to learn the melodies by ear and to sing them regularly; a culture that is common in the lives of his students. Singing, playing and listening to Sri Chinmoy’s music has become an extension of my daily meditation practice.
One of my life’s dreams had always been to visit Ireland. Irish music has always impressed me – as has the character of the Irish people that I have been fortunate enough to know. My chance came in 1999 when a small group of our meditation centre members from New Zealand ventured to the Emerald Isle to offer a series of free meditation workshops in Dublin. Ireland, for me, is the most wonderful place to visit; and the hardest place to leave. Wishing to take something of Ireland home with me, I invested in a tin whistle and began playing Sri Chinmoy’s songs and a few traditional Irish tunes by ear. A musician friend commented “I hear you’ve found your instrument!” Perhaps he was waxing sarcastic, but I felt he was on the money. I recently read found this quote somewhere: “Never get one of those cheap tin whistles. It leads to much harder drugs like pipes and flutes.” Quite prophetic actually – read on.
On my next jaunt to Ireland, I went searching for a wooden flute for Sri Chinmoy who is always on the lookout for new and unusual instruments. I had the good fortune to come across Martin Doyle, who makes fantastic flutes and, like myself, has a keen interest in meditation and spirituality. And so the KiwiCelt connection was born. On ordering a traditional Irish cocus flute for Sri Chinmoy and a similar Blackwood flute for Premik Russell Tubbs, a friend in New York, my new found Celtic buddy gifted me a lovely maple flute, and within minutes I realised that I had indeed “found my instrument”!
Martin was for some time making a range of wooden flutes from native New Zealand timbers that I was sending to him. As his business has picked up over the last six years and he is still mostly working alone, we have ended that venture now. But KiwiCelt still stocks Martin Doyle’s flutes most of the time and I am still playing one of his Blackwood keyless D flutes – and remain very proud to promote and recommend Martin’s handcrafted masterpieces. If you enjoy the refreshing sound of natural acoustic music, I do hope you get a chance to view and try Martin Doyle’s delightful flutes. Made with the greatest of care and feeling for his craft – and with a real love for the music that they will produce – Martin Doyle’s flutes are easy to play, have fantastic tonal qualities and look exquisite!
Check out the KiwiCelt Flutes page.
... a web site dedicated to the simple system wooden flutes (aka 'Irish' flutes) that are so much a part of Irish traditional and Celtic music, and to the excellent wooden flutes produced by the Irish flute maker 
