Thomas Verity & Michael Csányi-Wills
Biographie Thomas Verity & Michael Csányi-Wills
Thomas Verity
studied at Manchester University and the Royal Northern College of Music. He has performed as guest principal with orchestras including the Hallé, BBC Philharmonic, Royal Northern Sinfonia, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. In September 2011 he took up the post of Principal Second Clarinet / E-flat Clarinet with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Highlights with the RLPO include tours to Spain, China and Japan, and playing principal clarinet in the BBC Proms.
As a member of the Sterling Trio (www.thesterlingtrio.com), Thomas has performed throughout the UK, including Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall, and St Martin-in-the-Fields, St James’s Piccadilly and the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London. The Trio have twice been selected for the Making Music Concert Promoters’ Group. He also appears on the Bob the Builder soundtrack!
The Verity / Passmore Duo, in which Thomas partner pianist Simon Passmore, is dedicated to exploring the wealth of music written for clarinet and piano – as well as adding to it by unearthing lesser-known pieces, and through commissions and innovative transcriptions. They have a special interest in music from the British Isles, and have given world première performances of music by Simon Parkin, Martin Bussey and Peter Hope.
Thomas and Simon have been playing together since 2010, with performances to date including recitals in Manchester (St Ann’s Church, RNCM, Hallé St Peter’s), New Brighton, Burnley, Rochdale, Bury and Warrington. They have also played in Brantwood House (home of John Ruskin), the Williamson Art Gallery & Museum, Birkenhead, Didsbury Arts Festival and at the Swaledale and Northern Aldborough Festivals. The Duo has been shortlisted for the Park Lane Group’s Young Artists’ Concert Series in London.
Michael Csanyi-Wills
Award winning composer and Pianist Michael Csányi-Wills has written works ranging from Chamber music to Choral and Orchestral works to film scores. He was composer in residence with the Welsh Sinfonia from September 2013-2016 and his recent orchestral works have been widely performed throughout the UK and commissions have taken him around Europe, Australia, China, and the USA where in 2016 his Violin concerto was premiered in the Constella Arts Festival, by violinist Tatiana Berman with principal conductor of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, Jose Luis Gomez.
Recent works include 2 song cycles “The Long Lost Songs” and “12 Songs On Horizons Far” (funded by the Arts Council/National Lottery), his second symphony written over lockdown in 2020, and a third song cycle set to words by Pushkin called “Songs in times of Pandemic” written for Soprano Ilona Domnich and violinist Charles Mutter. Also released in 2019, “Nocturne for Yodit” was written for Martin Anderson of Toccata Classics, recorded by the Ukrainian Festival Orchestra and conducted by Paul Mann.
Michael’s 1st Symphony was performed by Cardiff University Symphony Orchestra in November 2019. The recording made in February 2020 will be re-released with “Seagull Nebula” for Chamber Orchestra, and “The Last Letter” arranged for Cello and Orchestra, recorded by Steffan Morris (Principal Cello of the Northern Sinfonia) and the CUSO in July 2021.
Michael’s most performed work “The Last Letter” originally for Soprano and Piano, was recorded in 2023 by Trombonist Emily White and Pianist Sam Haywood for Deux-Elles records due for release in 2024.
Michael’s Orchestral Songs disk, featuring Nicky Spence, Jacques Imbrailo and Ilona Domnich, was released 2015 to critical acclaim, and was ‘recording of the month’ at Music Web International.
Michael has also written scores for over 40 films including documentaries such as “The King of Nerac” and “Maestro” a feature documentary feature about conductor Paavo Järvi and most recently a feature drama such “Sideshow” starring Les Dennis and Anthony head which will have a theatrical release in March 2022. He won BEST SCORE at the Movie Maverick Awards, for his score to the short film “A love story in Milk” and was nominated at the World Soundtrack awards for Best Newcomer. His latest commercial success comes in the form of Meta Quest and Aardman’s “The Grand Getaway, a Wallace and Gromit VR game released in December 2023.
As a pianist, Michael still performs and records regularly, having recorded the complete Weinberg Violin Sonatas with Russian Violinist Yuri Kalnits all released by Toccata Classics to critical acclaim. Volumes 1 & 2 won a “Diapason d”Or” in the French Magazine “Diapason”. In 2021, Volume 3 was nominated for a much coveted ICMA award, and Volume 4 was released in 2022. His latest project is an album of his own Clarinet and Piano music with Principal of the WNO clarinetist Thomas Verity, due for release in 2024 by Rubicon Classics. Also due for a release in 2024, Michael performed Pine Winds with violinist Tatiana Berman by Steve Goss for Deux-Elles Records.
Appointed an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in 2012, and as Head of Keyboard and Composition at the World Heart Beat Music Academy in London, Michael is passionate about music education. Many of his students have been awarded scholarships to major music colleges in the UK.
He is also associate conductor the BBC Ariel Orchestra, and of the World Heart Beat Music Academy Orchestra.
Ensemble Klezmer-ish
From rip-roaring klezmer and dynamic tango to their self-penned gypsy jazz, Klezmer-ish bring a trademark twist to whatever genre takes their fancy. Drawing inspiration from the music of bygone travellers, Dusty Road is a seamless musical journey, always on the move.
Meet Klezmer-ish, four incredibly outward-looking classically trained musicians who met whilst playing with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Their fittingly titled new album Dusty Road sees the band freeing themselves from the “shackles” of the rigid hierarchy of the orchestra as they explore the music of immigrants from various cultural backgrounds who left their homelands for a different life.
As their name implies, Klezmer-ish cannot simply be pigeonholed as a straight-ahead klezmer act, but rather a band with an incredibly diverse and forever expanding repertoire. Bound together in the true spirit of intercultural exchange, their music is always on the move, like the travelling peoples that it reflects. Similarly, the band’s approach is incredibly flexible and democratic, as guitarist and vocalist Rob acknowledges, “We all play equal parts in the quartet. No one is purely accompaniment or the main voice, but we constantly swap roles. Even Marcel on the bass very often takes the leading part and plays the melody rather than just sticking to the bass line as you would expect. This certainly helps create our unusual sound world.” It’s an approach very much in evidence on the classic album opener ‘The Klezmer’s Freilach’ where the band bring in and out of focus each instrumental element to the music. This gives the music a fluidity and constantly changing dynamism unto its own, as the album takes you on a wide-ranging journey of musical styles from Klezmer, tango, gypsy jazz and beyond.
Whether it be a tribute to tango’s most famous sons Carlos Gardel and Astor Piazzolla in ‘Volver’ and ‘Kicho’, letting loose on multi-instrumentalist Rob’s two self-penned gypsy-jazz inspired compositions ‘September Sun’ and ‘Dusty Road’, or the deeply moving Hebrew Song by Shem Tov Levi ‘Amud Ha’Esh’, this collection of a dozen pieces demonstrates the bands outward-looking approach and desire to challenge themselves outside of the strict rules of the symphony orchestra. In the words of the band “There is no such thing with Klezmerish. No boss! All equals. No rules or regulations. It is all led by the music, and by the mutual respect we have for each other’s talent.”
