Thirty years ago, a small Belgian ensemble embarked on a quest for forgotten voices from the past. No one could have foreseen that this quest would grow into one of the most distinctive artistic journeys within European early music. Today, Zefiro Torna celebrates its thirtieth anniversary. Not with a traditional retrospective, but with a season that, as always, looks forward, pushes boundaries and builds bridges between centuries, cultures and art forms.
Since its founding in 1996 by Jurgen De bruyn and Els Van Laethem, the ensemble has never been satisfied with merely reconstructing historical music. Early music was the starting point, not the end goal. Early on, an artistic practice emerged in which medieval, Renaissance and Baroque music were connected with literature, theatre, dance, visual arts and contemporary creation. What others call "crossover," De bruyn prefers to describe as a hybrid art form in which different eras and disciplines challenge and enrich one another.
That approach made Zefiro Torna an outsider in the musical landscape. The ensemble grew into an internationally respected player, performing in venues such as AMUZ, BOZAR, Concertgebouw Brugge, Casa da Música in Porto and Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ in Amsterdam, but equally at festivals such as Laus Polyphoniae, O. Festival Rotterdam and Morgenland Festival Osnabrück.
At the heart of this story stands artistic director Jurgen De bruyn, guitarist, lutenist and tireless generator of ideas. For three decades he has explored what happens when music meets other worlds: science, philosophy, mysticism, poetry or visual art. Under his leadership, Zefiro Torna developed a recognisable artistic signature. A concert there is rarely an ordinary performance. It is rather a total experience in which music forms part of a larger narrative about humanity, space and time.
Anyone looking back on those thirty years discovers an impressive story. Productions such as Chaunceleer, Greghesche, O Monde Aveugle! and De Allegorie van het Verlangen now belong to the ensemble's frame of reference. In doing so, Zefiro Torna collaborated with artists from very diverse disciplines, from the Tunisian-Belgian singer Ghalia Benali to choreographers, theatre makers and contemporary composers. The common thread has always remained the same: music as a meeting place.
That idea of encounter also lies at the heart of the anniversary season 2026-2027. Several iconic productions return to the stage. The Allegory of Desire will be performed again, the internationally acclaimed production in which Renaissance and Baroque music enter into dialogue with Arabic poetry and Sufi traditions. Since its premiere in 2013, this performance has built an impressive international career. For many followers, it remains one of the most characteristic creations in the Zefiro Torna repertoire.
Scattered Rhymes, the unusual encounter between early music and jazz in collaboration with the Frank Vaganée Trio, also returns. In addition, the ensemble looks towards the future with Hypersenses, a new co-production with Laika, theater der zinnen, which invites the audience to experience music not only by hearing it but with all the senses.
Another highlight is undoubtedly The Mass Man, a music theatre production based on Elias Canetti's influential book Crowds and Power. In collaboration with Muziektheater Transparant and director Wouter Van Looy, Zefiro Torna explores how individuals relate to masses, ideologies and power. The production will be presented this month during the Musiktheatertage in Vienna.
The anniversary reaches its symbolic peak in March 2027 with a festive edition of Unity in Diversity at AMUZ. Once begun as a European project centred on lute songs, it has grown into an artistic laboratory in which musical traditions from across Europe meet. For this XL edition, De bruyn brings together an exceptional international ensemble of singers and instrumentalists. The project perhaps sums up better than any other production what Zefiro Torna has stood for these thirty years: viewing diversity not as an obstacle, but as a source of beauty and inspiration.
While many ensembles specialise in a single style or period, Zefiro Torna has always chosen movement. For curiosity. For breaking down walls between genres, eras and cultures. What began in 1996 as a search for early music has grown into an artistic vision in which past and future are in constant conversation.
Thirty years later, that same west wind still blows through the musical landscape. To express it in colourful and philosophical terms: where time breathes in sound, Zefiro Torna's journey, after all, seems far from over. Let the west wind blow!