Biography

Eric Swiggers was born in Deurne, the Netherlands, in 1968. After Grammar-school he continued his musical education at the Conservatory in Tilburg where he graduated in three Master Degrees i.e. Keyboards, Windband Conductor with Jan Cober and Composition with Kees Schoonenbeek. Besides this he studied various instrumental subsidiary subjects as saxophone with Jean Pennings and Hans de Jong. During this period he made some concert tours e.g. to Greece and Hungary where he performed on the Conservatory of Szged. On his Master Degree Windband Conductor he graduated with the cooperation of the military band "Johan Willem Friso" in Assen where he performed his arrangement of Gustav Holst's "Ballet from The Perfect Fool". He has numerous compositions and arrangements in widely different genres to his name. He composed for windband, choir, string quartet, carillon, saxophone ensemble, symphonic orchestra and other instrumental combinations. Under the pseudonym "Ennio Salvere" he wrote some very popular pieces for youth orchestra.

His compositions for windband, published by Molenaar Edition, are best described as "contemporary, refreshing but accessible". In March 2001 he won the first prize awarded by the Hilvarenbeek town council in the composers competition with the work "Suite for Saxophone quartet, Piano and Percussion". In 2005 he was invited to Shanghai where he conducted his composition "Decennium".

As a conductor he worked with several well known windbands and won many prices and awards. From 1994 till 2000 he worked as a teacher at a school of music where he also conducted a symphonic orchestra. Currently the main activities of Eric Swiggers are those of composing and arranging. Besides his musical activities he also studied ICT & Media Design/Digital Publishing at the Fontys University of Applied Science in Eindhoven (the Netherlands) where he graduated 'Cum Laude' in 2015 and is now working as webdeveloper.