Martin Doyle and his small but dedicated team have created numerous flutes throughout 2025. As this memorable year draws to a close, the flute that we selected to feature is a six key boxwood flute that was completed in August for a client in America.
More photos, including the one above, can be viewed on Martin Doyle’s photostream at Flickr.
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Martin Doyle is always grateful to receive feedback on his work as a flute maker and he was thrilled to read a post on the Facebook page of Irish flautist Eimear McGeown recently with regards to a wooden headjoint that he made for Eimear’s concert flute. It runs thus:
“Really enjoying my new Martin Doyle Flutes wooden headjoint for my classical flute!!! Have lots of really exciting new music to learn on it for the Budapest recital [Eimear is offering a recital and masterclass at the Budapest Flute Academy in Hungary, March 10—13, 2016], including two new pieces written for me by Alicia Hart and Philip Hammond!”
Eimear McGeown’s Martin Doyle Flutes Wooden Headjoint (photo credit: Eirmear McGeown’s Facebook page)
We look forward to hearing more from Eimear in the near futue and wish her well in Budapest.
For more information, kindly visit: Wooden Headjoints for Concert Flutes »
Rob Portnoy
Rob had the following to say about a wooden headjoint that he recently commissioned Martin Doyle to make for his concert flute:
Hi Martin,
I just wanted to thank you for the phenomenal work you did in creating my new headjoint. I recently played it on the show “Beauty and The Beast” and received many compliments on my “sweet” sound. The combination of my Altus Limited and your Blackwood Headjoint allow me a warmth that neither of my metal headjoints provide and enable me to play all octaves with a solid, centered sound which articulates quickly and doesn’t break up when pushed! I will surely endorse your craftsmanship so more flutists can experience the wonderful qualities of a Martin Doyle headjoint!
Best wishes,
Rob Portnoy.
Martin Doyle’s web page about the wooden headjoints he makes for concert flutes can be viewed here: Wooden Headjoints for Concert Flutes »
Here’s a video clip of Joe Doyle playing The Mother and Child reel – complete with background accompaniment from the local bird life. Joe is playing a keyless Martin Doyle flute made from Brazilian rosewood in the key of D.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eOYg7PPNIw
Very nice Joe!
Here’s a lovely new tune played by Joe Doyle – a jig he composed in honour of his father, the flute maker Martin Doyle. Joe is playing a keyless Martin Doyle D flute made from Brazilian rosewood.
Martin Doyle has long dreamed of making flutes using timbers that have been produced in environmentally friendly and socially equitable modes. In recent years, Martin has been involved in a number of projects that have highlight a movement toward that reality and he has participated in the making of three radio documentaries highlighting the sustainable use of African Blackwood – Mpingo as the valued tonewood is known in east Africa. Martin is the first flute maker to produce an Irish flute from FSC certified African Blackwood having received a small amount of the timber some months ago.
Martin Doyle with the newly arrived FSC certified African Blackwood.
This week Martin received his first full shipment of FSC certified African Blackwood which prompted the following comment:
“The arrival of this timber gives us the feeling of working in a sustainable environment that is genuinely beneficial to the people of Tanzania and we are very happy to be participating in a chain of events that has a positive outcome for everyone involved. It’s a great joy!”
Martin thinks that this shipment of timber has been harvested from the sustainably managed Mpingo forests around the village of Kikoli in eastern Tanzania – an area Martin visited during his trip to Tanzania in 2009. Martin’s plan is to be using FSC certified African Blackwood exclusively from the beginning of 2012 as his present stock of material diminishes. The flutes made from the FSC certified timber will be stamped accordingly.
Sound & Fair is an organisation that aims to realise a sustainable trade in African blackwood through a Chain of Custody linking forest-dependent people in Tanzania to woodwind instrument musicians throughout the world.
Martin Doyle has recently been featured in a Sound & Fair news item regarding a new batch of Irish flutes that he has produced from Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) certified African Blackwood – a ‘world’s first’ for the flute making community. Martin’s concern for conservation and the conscious use of timber goes back to when he first began working with wood. In the Sound & Fair article he comments: