Anthony Marwood / James Crabb Duo

Internationally acclaimed musicians Anthony Marwood and James Crabb have been collaborating regularly over the last few years since their first concerts together at the Peasmarsh Chamber Music Festival and at the Wigmore Hall in London (both of which led to re-invitations). Artistic soulmates with a shared enthusiasm for the huge breadth of repertoire available to these two instruments, they also share close bonds with contemporary composers such as Brett Dean, Thomas Adès and Sally Beamish. They have rapidly gathered international invitations, both as joint orchestral soloists and in recital: on tour with the New Century Chamber Orchestra in San Francisco, with Les Violons du Roy in Canada, with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and at festivals in Australia (UKARIA and Four Winds) and New Zealand (Nelson).

Anthony Marwood (violin)

Anthony Marwood enjoys a wide-ranging international career as soloist, director and chamber musician. Recent solo engagements include performances with the Boston Symphony, St Louis Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, New World Symphony, London Philharmonic, Spanish National Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony and Sydney Symphony. He has worked with conductors such as Valery Gergiev, Sir Andrew Davis, Thomas Søndergård, David Robertson, Gerard Korsten, Ilan Volkov, Jaime Martin, Douglas Boyd and Gemma New.

In summer 2021 he received great acclaim for his performance of the Ligeti Violin Concerto with Thomas Adès and the Tanglewood Music Centre Orchestra. The Boston Globe review commented “None could outshine special guest Anthony Marwood, the featured soloist in Ligeti’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra. Ending as it does with an extended and totally exposed cadenza — Marwood used one composed by Adès — this concerto demands Olympian-caliber endurance from its soloist, and Marwood surely would have run away with the gold. Under Adès’s baton, the orchestra created a backdrop of dramatic and organic sound; the Intermezzo saw the strings’ whispering tree-sounds morph into bright rocket flares, and the long Passacaglia slowly smoldered into a blazing inferno. Against all this, Marwood’s violin dug deep through double stops and soared high with angelic resonance — think many-eyed seraphim, not Precious Moments figurine. The orchestra’s closing gesture had scarcely dissipated before the fellows sharing my row were on their feet, cheering at full blast. They knew excellence when they heard it.”

As director and soloist Anthony has appeared with many of the leading chamber orchestras, including the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, the Tapiola Sinfonietta, the Irish Chamber Orchestra, the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Les Violons du Roy, Orchestre de chambre de Paris and the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

As a chamber musician he has a wide circle of regular collaborators including Steven Isserlis, Aleksandar Madžar, Inon Barnatan, Alexander Melnikov, Denes Varjon and James Crabb.

Many leading composers have written concertos for him, including Thomas Adès (Anthony also made the first recording of the work, for EMI) Steven Mackey, Sally Beamish and Samuel Carl Adams. Anthony is a prolific recording artist, and his most recent release – his 50th on the Hyperion label – is a recording of Walton’s Violin Concerto with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Martyn Brabbins. The disc received wide critical acclaim, including a 5-star review in The Guardian and a ‘Recommended Recording’ in The Strad Magazine, whilst the Sunday Times described him as “a thrilling, virtuosic soloist”.

Anthony studied with Emanuel Hurwitz and David Takeno in London. He has collaborated with numerous actors, Indian classical dancer Mayuri Boonham, Irish singer-songwriter Sinead O’Connor, sculptress Nicole Farhi and South African guitarist Derek Gripper. He was the violinist of the Florestan Trio for sixteen years and won the Royal Philharmonic Society Instrumentalist award in 2006.

Anthony, who resides in Sussex and Amsterdam, is co-Artistic Director of the Peasmarsh Chamber Music Festival in East Sussex, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2018. He performs annually at the Yellow Barn Festival in Vermont and enjoys a close association with the Australian National Academy of Music in Melbourne. He was appointed an MBE in the 2018 Queen’s New Year’s Honours List and was made a Fellow of the Guildhall School of Music in 2013. He uses a bow by Joseph René LaFleur and plays a 1736 Carlo Bergonzi violin, kindly bought by a syndicate of purchasers, and a 2018 violin made by Christian Bayon.

James Crabb (classical accordion)

Internationally praised for his breath-taking virtuosity and versatile musicianship, Scottish born James Crabb is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading classical accordionists. He studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, Copenhagen with accordion pioneer Mogens Ellegaard and became professor there from 1995 until 2010. He also held a long-standing guest professorship at the University in Graz, Austria. James was awarded the prestigious Carl Nielsen Music Prize, Denmark in 1991.

In 2019 James gave the world premiere of Brett Dean’s accordion concerto The Players in Sweden, (recorded on the BIS label); featured in Co.3 Dance company’s In Line production in Perth; play-directed Sinfonia Cymru, Wales; and performed the on-stage role in Dean’s Hamlet with Cologne Opera.

He has recorded for several labels including Chandos, EMI Classics, BIS, ABC Classics, Simax, Dacapo a.o.

Recent and upcoming return engagements include performances at the Australian and Tasmanian chamber music festivals, Canberra International Music Festival, a residency at Australian National Academy of Music, ACO, Melbourne and West Australian Symphony Orchestras, and UKARIA. James continues to inspire composers to write for him and maintains a busy schedule as a curator, soloist and chamber musician.

A passionate and sought-after music educator and mentor, James collaborates regularly with the Australian National Academy of Music, Freedman Fellowship Trust, Australian Youth Orchestra, Music Viva as well as music conservatories and universities both in Australia and abroad. He was Artistic Director of the Four Winds Festival in Bermagui, NSW, from 2016 – 2020 during which time he curated both the annual Easter and inaugural Youth Festivals and developed the music education programs in local schools.

Promoters please note: if you wish to include this biography in a concert programme etc, please contact James Brown Management to ensure that you receive the most up to date version.  Email: Jessica Grime