Hamish Napier is inspired by the heritage and nature of his native landscape of Strathspey. 

Scottish folk flautist, pianist, singer,
educator and composer 

5 years ago, after nearly 2 decades living and working in Glasgow and Boston’s vibrant, multi-genre music scenes, Hamish returned home to his native Strathspey to begin his ambitious 10-year project to produce 5 album of landscape music 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.

Hamish contributed significantly to two other recent winners Black Cuillin (‘23) and Sandwood (’18) by fellow Highlander and stellar fiddle player Duncan Chisholm (Wolfstone), with whom he has a successful long-standing co-writing partnership with.

He’s also 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 even been a radio presenter for BBC Radio Scotland’s Travelling Folk programme. He has appeared at festivals, theaters, music camps and universities throughout the UK, Europe and North America. 

For Hamish, it’s all about striking 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.

SERVICES

Performer

• Available as solo artist, or as part of a duo or trio, up to large 8-piece folk band.

• Band-member with with leading Scottish acts Duncan Chisholm, Adam Sutherland, Gary Innes, Jarlath Henderson and Ross Ainslie.

Composer

• Commission a new folk tune as a gift for someone

• Large-scale commissioned pieces

Album Producer or Arranger

• Co-produced over a dozen folk albums

• Co-arranged music on over 20 folk albums