Vicki Swan & Jonny Dyer
Vicki and Jonny are two of the most versatile musicians of the folk circuit today, a on stage – and now online, the duo are recognised for the high quality of their polished concerts; not only by their charismatic singing and playing but also by their involving, winning presence and easy rapport, their polished delivery that genuinely respects their listeners, and their lively, informed backstories.
Vicki Swan & Jonny Dyer have developed an enviable reputation for their ability to reimagine folk and folk dance music; creating sounds that are simultaneously new and progressive, and yet entirely sympathetic to the tradition. They have become deeply involved in folk dance over the last ten years; contra, ceilidh and social dance both as the duo and as Purcell’s Polyphonic Party. They often insert performance elements into their dance music. You are very likely to find yourself dancing to a song – and we dare you not to sing the chorus as you go.
At one end of the entertainment spectrum Vicki & Jonny can also be spotted at castles and properties around the country as medieval minstrels and at the other on the silver screen with recordings and appearances at the cinema for Holywood movies, Netflix, Channel 5, ITVx and the BBC!
Vicki Swan – nyckelharpa, vocals, flute, assorted bagpipes
Vicki studied at the Royal College of Music on the double bass. She also plays the various types of bagpipes, flute, recorder, piano and nyckelharpa (Swedish keyed-fiddle). On leaving music college Vicki started down the long path of folk music and was only seen on rare glimpses back in classical orchestras. You’ll find Vicki now inhabiting the troll ridden forests playing her Swedish bagpipes, bagging tunes for new books. Vicki holds the Zorn Bronze Award for the traditional playing of Swedish bagpipes and runs workshops and teaches the nyckelharpa around the UK.
Vicki is a multi-instrumentalist with more instruments than is interesting to list here, so the main ones and their makers are:
Nyckelharpa by Sören Åhker
Fiddleharpa and Oktavharpa by Johannes Mayr
Tagelharpas by Anders Norudde and Visy Bloodaxe
Scottish Smallpipes by Hamish Moore
English Border pipes by Jon Swayne
Swedish säckpipa by Alban Faust
Wooden Flute (Pratten Model) by Tony Millyard
Jonny Dyer – guitars, accordion, cowhorn, harpsichords
Composer and competition-winning guitar player; Jonny’s outstanding technical ability, coupled with a wide-ranging musical taste has made him a tireless and forceful musical innovator. Jonny has been singing and playing choral music, soul, jazz and folk for as long as he can remember.
Jonny mostly plays his Fylde Falstaff guitar and a custom guitar shaped bouzouki made by Colin Kendal. He also plays a Pigini72 bass P36 and a Brandoni Piccolo accordion. Oh.. and a Börs Anders Cow Horn. His list of ancient brass is too long to list and occasionally he gets out enough to play his harpsichord. Especially for Playford things.
