PETER WEEKERS
Shakuhachi
The legendary Peter Weekers is mainly known as the co-founder of the reknown acoustic band Flairck.
He has also worked as a musician for several other Dutch theatre groups such as 'Het Werktheater', 'De Appel' and 'De Nieuwe Komedie'.
He also joined, as member and composer, the minimal music orchestra 'Hoketus' which was founded by the Dutch composer Louis Andriessen.
During his classical flute and composition studies in the 70's, he also specialized in playing the East European panpipes and the South American sampogna.
After the release of the first three albums, he interrupted his work with Flairck and recorded two solo albums: 'Fata Morgana' (1981) and 'Mamadeus' (1983). Consequently, he formed the group 'Mamadeus', featuring the unusual line up of flute, cembalon, clarinet, marimba, drums and bass.
In the beginning of the 80's, Peter Weekers spend several months in India studying the bansuri (Indian bamboo flute) with renowned flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia. His encounter with eastern philosophy inspired him to incorporate this into his daily life, although after a brief glimpse of Nirvana he rejoined Flairck in 1986. The band left for England to record the album 'Sleight of Hand' with producer Mike Batt and singer Maggy Reilly.
A year later, Weekers recorded two panpipe solo albums, 'Behind the bamboo fence' and 'Rhapsodies', with Mike Batt and the 'London Philharmonic Orchestra'.
Weekers performed as a panpipe solist with the Dutch 'Concertgebouworkest' and the 'London Symphony Orchestra'.
During the first Flairck concerts in Japan (1989), he met Taizan Kawamura who became his shakuhachi (Japanese traditional flute) teacher for some years to come.
In 1989, Peter Weekers was awarded the Golden Harp, Hollands highest music award, for his work with Flairck.
Peter Weekers wrote and played on three more Flairck albums, 'The Emigrant' (1988), 'Alive' (1990) and 'The Parade' (1992) before he left the group in 1993 for the second time. He then teamed up with guitarist Francis Goya for a once-off tour. At the same time, he developed a solo program for Dutch theatre, playing a large number of the wind instruments he had collected on his travels.
A year later he was joined by flautist Annet Visser. The two flautists formed the music-theatre and dance company 'Zenga'. The group's first show 'Musica Animalis' premiered in the 'Goudse Schouwburg',one of Hollands most prestigious theatres, in the winter of 1995. In the following years, Zenga toured extensively on the Dutch theatre circuit and performed frequently at events organised by Dutch commercial institutions and companies.
Seven years later three of the original Flairck members, Sylvia Houtzager, Erik Visser and Peter Weekers himself, met up for a limited number of benefit performances. The energy generated took both the audiences and the musicians completely by surprise. Together, and with the addition of Pablo Patricio Ortiz, they decided to pick up the 'golden' thread once more. In 2014, they traveled to South America and East Asia before embarking on the last tour featuring the Flairck founder members: 'The Lady's Back'. During this tour the band was awarded with the Ouvre Edison prize, one of the most prestigious awards in The Netherlands.
