The Bagpipe Society

Biographies

Gesine Bänfer

Gesine Bänfer is a recognised specialist for historical woodwind instruments and in addition to her main instrument - the historical shawm - she also plays bagpipes from England, Galicia and France, whistles, saxophone and the old English guitar of the 18th century.

Her research into medieval wind music has gained international recognition, and she regularly gives lectures on the iconography of historical wind instruments at universities and music colleges throughout Europe. With her medieval wind band LES HAULZ ET LES BAS she has won prizes at several international competitions and is regularly present in Europe’s most prestigious Early Music Festivals. For her bagpipe playing she was a prizewinner at the Festival Rencontre Internationales de St.Chartier (France) and received two awards from the German Pop Foundation for “Best Wind Player“ and, with Contraband, for “Best Folk Rock Band”. She is a sought-after studio musician and has contributed the historical wind instruments and bagpipe sounds to the popular series “The Witcher“.

With her prize-winning ensemble Les haulz et les bas, she has researched the wind music of the Gothic and Renaissance periods from 1200 to 1600 and produced 7 CDs with Deutschlandfunk Kultur. With the Early Folk Band she explored historical folk music sources from 1600 to 1900 and released 3 CDs with Deutschlandfunk Kultur. And with her crossover project ars supernova she combines polyphonic wind music of the 14th century with jazz and has released 1 CD with Deutschlandfunk Kultur.

In the 35 years of her professional musical career, she has initiated and supervised many projects and played at a high level with musicians from all over the world - ‘with unbridled joy of playing and a real desire to experiment with the musical material’.

As a pedagogue, she received her training in Waldorf education at the Free University of Freiburg / Stuttgart. As a music producer, she founded her own independent label ahalani-records. She has four daughters and two grandchildren and lives with her family in Freiburg im Breisgau.

website: www.gesine-baenfer.de

Pressephotos Ellen Schmauss

The Early Folk Duo

Gesine & Steven dedicate this programme to the folk music of the Baroque period

Gesine Bänfer (DE)

Gesine is a woodwind player and plays shawm, whistles, various bagpipes and Old English guittar as well as soprano saxophone in other projects. In her 35 years as a professional musician, she has initiated and supervised many projects and played at a high level with musicians from all over the world - ‘with unbridled joy of playing and a real desire to experiment with the musical material’. She founded her first girls’ band Jawbone at the age of 13, sang in a rock opera for many years and played saxophone in dance combos and big bands before specialising in historical woodwind instruments. With her shawm she won the prestigious Early Music Competition Festival van Vlandern, Bruges and the Belgian BRTN Radio Prize. She was honoured for her bagpipe playing at the Festival Rencontre Internationales de St.Chartier (France) and received two awards from the German Pop Foundation for ‘Best Wind Player’ and ‘Best Folk Rock Band’. As a music producer, she runs the independent CD label ahalani-records.

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Steven Player (GB)

Steven is a comedian, dancer and musician in one. Inspired by the original manuscripts, he brings the historical dances of the Renaissance and Baroque periods to new life, always with a twinkle in his eye and a mischievous streak in his neck. As a baroque guitarist, he has worked with the best musicians and ensembles in the field of early music for concerts and recordings, including in the USA with Apollo’s Fire and La Nef and in Europe with the groups Los Otros, The Harp Consort and The Alehouse Boys. With the Society of Strange and Ancient Instruments he has created a new interpretation of the Morris Dances with the programme Nine Daies Wonder. He has choreographed and taught for television, theatre and opera from the north coast of Norway to the southern tip of Australia.

Tasos Makris

Tasos Makris was born in 1994 at Serres, a small city in northern Greece. He is involved in traditional music from a young age and studied the greek lute in the Department of Traditional Music in Arta, where he wrote his thesis about gaida- making in Greece. He plays the gaida since 2010 and a few years later enters into gaida construction. As a musician he has played in numerous occasions such as concerts, weddings and local festivals.

Callum Armstrong

Callum Armstrong grew up playing the highland pipes. He studied the recorder and baroque oboe at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music. Whilst at Music college, he began to collaborate with the Pipe Maker Julian Goodacre. Through this collaboration he developed a highly polyphonic technique for double smallpipe chanters and together with Julian developed a smallpipe chanter with a highly extended range. He won the Chateau D’ars solo piping competition in 2014, and ‘Petite Formation’ competition in 2015.

Over the last few years, Callum has been focusing on the revival of the ancient greek auloi. In 2022 He began a Youtube Channel the ‘Aulos Collective’ together with the Flute Maker Max Brumberg. Callum regularly performs as a soloist, and with ensembles around Europe. Some of Callum’s recent projects include recording music for the film ‘Gladiator II’ and taking part in the documentary ‘Callum Armstrong the Aulete’ which won 1st prize from the Ierapetra international film festival.

Nicholas Konradsen

Nicholas Konradsen is a maker of traditional and medieval instruments specialising in Single Reed bagpipes, hailing from Lindsey in Lincolnshire. Nicholas has been self-learning bagpipe making since the age of 16 and now has an expansive range of different instruments and has since worked with the Heritage Crafts Association on reinventing the lost Lincolnshire bagpipe.

Jon Loomes

Jon Loomes took up the hurdy gurdy in 1998 and learned on the job playing shows alongside Phil Martin. A highly experienced performer, Jon is well known for his work with BBC Folk Award Nominees Pilgrims’ Way and notorious Belgian surrealists Heretique. Passionate about folksong, his solo album ‘Fearful Symmetry’ quickly became a cult classic. As a multi-instrumentalist and recording engineer, he has featured on many recordings, and has worked with some of the biggest names in British folk music.

Ravi Sawney

Ravi Sawney has been playing for, dancing and teaching Balfolk for thirty years or so, with On Bouge, Dansez Français, Les Bâtons and Balfolk Oxford.

At the Blowout I intend to help you get familiar with enough dances for you to enjoy the bals here and elsewhere. I will provide a safe environment for individuals of all skill levels to engage with the wonderful world of movement to music, and shall include solo, couple and group dances, such as bourrées, schottische, waltz, mazurka and Breton dances. I will concentrate on enabling you to take part, allowing you to fill in details later. People of all skill levels could attend. I will encourage experienced dancers to help novices. You do not need to come with a partner.

My teaching/calling style is gender neutral, and positional.

David Faulkner

David has been playing pipes for over 30 years. He has played with groups such as Moebius, Zephyrus and the Eel Grinders. He plays solo, in duets and bands. David runs piping courses and teaches pipes regularly. He runs three weekly mixed instrument community folk orchestras and conducts a monthly mandolin orchestra!

Terry Mann

Terry Mann studied Early Woodwind Musical Instrument Technology at the London College of Furniture in the 1980s, but pursued careers as a musician and as an award-winning contemporary classical composer. He returned to making, and has had a workshop for the last seven years, during which he has established himself as a maker of quality mediaeval and renaissance woodwinds. His current focus is on tabor pipes based on the 16th Century Mary Rose finds, and recorders based on the 15th Century Elbląg find.

Terry’s future plans include renaissance consort recorders, a Virdung late mediaeval recorder quartet, and learning to make reed instruments (rauschpfeife, curtal, shawm and crumhorn) with master craftsman Eric Moulder, supported by a scholarship from the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust. He also formed the New Cambridge Waits to perform music of the medieval and renaissance periods.

Aisling Holmes

Aisling Holmes has been playing pipes since her teens, starting with Leicestershire smallpipes in D, then adding border/Flemish pipes in a variety of keys. She is particularly interested in English music, playing in harmony, and writing her own tunes. Over the last few years she has been involved in setting up the Sheffield Bagpipers, an informal group who get together to play a wide variety of music on pipes every month. During 2021 Aisling started a project to write a bagpipe tune every month and record it in at least two parts.