Zephyrus offer the glorious harmony and sinuous counterpoint of six sweetly toned bagpipes underpinned by driving percussion. Formed by Jon Swayne in 1998 to perform his piece The Halfe Hannikin Variations, Zephyrus brings together some of the best players of modern English bagpipes. The polyphonic style of writing developed by Jon is quite unique and exploits to the full the amazingly rich sonority offered by six pipes.
The Halfe Hannikin Variations is a suite of music inspired by the tune of the same name in John Playford's 1651 edition of The English Dancing Master, while the English Suite uses English dance and song forms as the basis for new and beautiful themes. Both pieces are available on CDs released in 2007. Zephyrus also have in their repertoire two striking pieces by their percussionist, composer Terry Mann.
Zephyrus have performed at festivals, arts centres & concerts, in venues ranging from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama, Sheffield's Crucible Theatre and Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral to churches and even a castle, and have been successful in obtaining funding support from the Arts Council of England.
Ciao Zephyrus, thank you very much for accepting my request. I heard you in Saint Chartier in July, simply wonderful! I hope to see you in Italy one day. All the best.
Hi Zephyrus !! Beautiful and very interesting your musical work !! We like very much your sound !! THANKS a lot for the add ! Good musical summer !! MANY CIAO from McNando !!
Hi again all! Thanks for adding us...we are so pleased to be friends. We especially enjoyed the choreography of the band at St. Chartier. Hope you sold loads of CD's. Regards Pete and Clare
Thank you for the concert at Saint Chartier! WOW! The music is realy great! And Jon, your bagpipes are wonderful and great to play on! Greetings from Flanders, Roos
