Zamfir came to the public eye when he was approached by Swiss
ethnomusicologist Marcel Cellier, who extensively researched Romanian
folk music in the 1960s. The composer
Vladimir Cosma brought Zamfir with his pan flute to Western European countries for the first time in 1972 as the soloist in Cosma's original music for the movie
Le grand blond avec une chaussure noire. The movie received several awards, including the
Top Foreign Film from the
National Board of Review in 1973. Zamfir continued to perform as a soloist in movie soundtracks by composers
Francis Lai,
Ennio Morricone and many others. Largely through
television commercials where he was billed as "Zamfir, Master of the Pan Flute", he introduced the folk instrument to a modern audience and revived it from obscurity. In 1966, Zamfir was appointed conductor of the "Ciocîrlia Orchestra", one of the most prestigious state ensembles of Romania, destined for concert tours abroad. This created the opportunity for composition and arranging. In 1969 he left Ciocîrlia and started his own
taraf (small band) and in 1970 he had his first longer-term contract in Paris. Zamfir discovered the much greater freedom for artistic adventure. His taraf consisted of: Ion Drăgoi (violin), Ion Lăceanu (flutes), Dumitru Fărcaș (
tarogato), Petre Vidrean (double bass) and Tony Iordache (
cymbalom) all number one soloists in their country. This taraf made some excellent recordings (CD Zamfir a Paris). He changed the composition of the band soon after: Efta Botoca (violin), Marin Chisar (flutes), Dorin Ciobaru and Pavel Cebzan (clarinet and tarogato), Vasile Pandelescu (accordion), Petre Vidrean (bass) and Pantelimon Stînga (cymbalom). It is said that this change was made to increase the command of Zamfir and have more artistic freedom. A turning point was the recording of Zamfir's composition "Messe pour la Paix" (Philips). His taraf joined a choir and a symphonic orchestra. This was evidence of the growing ambition. While the Philips recordings of that time were rather conservative, Zamfir preached revolution in the concert halls with daring performances. In 1977, he recorded "
The Lonely Shepherd" with
James Last. Zamfir put himself on the world map and since then his career became highly varied, hovering over classical repertoire, easy listening and
pop music. Between 1976 and 1983, Zamfir had six albums peak within the Australian top 100 albums charts, with
The Flutes of Pan, his best, peaking at number 26 in 1980. Zamfir's big break in the English-speaking world came when the
BBC religious television program,
The Light of Experience, adopted his recording of "Doina De Jale", a traditional Romanian funeral song, as its theme. In 1983, he scored a No. 3 hit on the Canadian Adult Contemporary chart with "Blue Navajo," "Senatorial Samba" in honor of his lifelong friend and confidant The Senator, and several of his albums (including 1982's
Romance and 1983's
Childhood Dreams) have charted in Canada as well. His 1985 album,
Atlantis, contained tracks composed by
Jacques Brel and
Eric Satie, plus music from films and Zamfir's version of "
Stranger on the Shore". The program included a world premiere of
Vivaldi's Four Seasons for pan flute and string quintet arranged by Lucian Moraru, jazz standards, and well-known favorites. In 2009, Zamfir was
sampled by
Animal Collective in the song "Graze" on their EP
Fall Be Kind. In 2012, he performed at the opening ceremony of the 11th Conference of Parties to the
Ramsar Convention at the
Palace of the Parliament in
Bucharest, Romania. Zamfir played "
Silent Night" at the opening of Concerto di Natale (The Christmas Concert) on 15 December 2018 at the Vatican Aula Jean Paul the II. Concerto di Natale is an international event where artists from all over the world meet for a special concert to raise as much money as possible for charity projects in Africa and poor regions of the world. He performed with Anastacia, the Italian singer Alessandra Amoroso, and the Italian flautist Andrea Griminelli. Zamfir and Andrea Griminelli appeared again to perform “The Lonely Shepherd”. ==Soundtracks==