Vincenzo Casale

Vincenzo Casale (1981) is an Italian clarinet player and conductor, who has specialized over the past 10 years in historical performance practice with original instruments. He is much in demand throughout Europe and North America both as soloist and a chamber music player, and in recent years has been invited to take part in  several projects as guest conductor and artistic director. He has performed in solo and chamber music concerts with artists such as forte-pianists Claire Chevallier, Boyan Vodenitcharov and Viviana Sofronisky, as well as playing chamber music with Sergei Istomin, Roel Dieltiens, Paul Dombrecht, Marcel Ponseele and Genevieve Soly.

Besides collaborating on tours throughout Europe and America in recent years, one can cite those with the Orchestre des Champs Elysées, the Chambre Philharmonique, the Orchestra of the 18th century, Freiburger Barockorchester, Concerto Köln, Balthasar Neumann Ensemble, Les Agremens, Concert Spirituel, Il Fondamento, Das Neue Orchester,Kölner academie, Opera Fuoco, Philidor, Harmony of Nations, Ecurie et Chambre du Roi, Anima Eterna, Les talens lyrique, Bachorchester Hannover, Camerata Silesia, Cercle dell’ Harmonie... with conductor as F. Brüggen, P. Herreweghe, R. Jacobs, T. Hengelbrock, J.C. Malgoire, J. van Immerseel, H. Niquet, G. van Waas, S. Standage, P. Dombrecht and E. Krivine.

He has also performed at a wide range of festivals such as Aix-en-Provence, Alden Biesen, Beaune, Leipzig Bach Festival, Klang&Raum Festival, AMUZ, MA Festival Brugge, Nantes, Oslo Chamber Music Festival, St.Riquier, Festival van Vlaanderen, Festival de Wallonie, Utrecht, Lockenhaus, Schleswig-Holstein and Sopron, Chivasso in Musica and Festival de Lasne.

His interest  in contemporary music has led several composers to dedicate new compositions for clarinet to him (Frederick Devreese, Michel Fourgon).

As well as being Professor of historical clarinet at the Gent Royal Conservatory, he is Professor at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, and he has also been invited  to teach in "Jornadas Internacional Musical Eduardo del Pueyo Granada", in the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp, University of Middle East Ankara and the Conservatories of Torino, Milano, Napoli, Roma and Perugia.

As conductor and musical director is  founder of TWIS ( Taffanel Wind Instruments Society) with international tours and collaborations (PARTS, dance international academy of Anne Theresa de Keersmaeker, the  Festival of Alicante…) He has received invitations from the Hirzen Pavillon Ensemble Basel, the NJO: Dutch orchestra Academy and the orchestra of the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp.

He is currently artistic director of the interdisciplinary festival ARTONOV.

He also owns a remarkable collection of historical clarinets with many romantic French and German originals (Pöschl, Osterried, Guerre, Simiot, Greve, Widman, Lefevre…). In addition, and of a particular  interest, there  are  different types of historical low and high register clarinets which  he has  used in various recordings.

Vincenzo Casale began his musical studies with the violin and flute, before taking up the clarinet at the age of 14. He obtained the musical diploma for clarinet at the G. Verdi Conservatory in Turin when he was  only 19 years old, the first prize for clarinet and music theory at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels and the first prize for chamber music at the Royal Conservatory of Liége. He has also studied at the Accademia Chigiana with Antony Pay, who was followed during his studies by W. Boeykens. Afterwards he decided  to study chalumeaux and classical and romantic clarinet with Eric Hoeprich, in order to obtain a Masters degree in historical performance practice and historical clarinet at the Royal Conservatory of Den Haag. He has also studied conducting  in several master classes and ateliers with Colin Matters, Benjamin Zander and Martin Elmquist.

He has recorded for the Harmonia mundi, Virgin classic, Ricercar Outhere, Zig Zag Territoires labels, and TV and radios stations such as Radio Klara, Radio France, Mezzo, Arte, Rai,VRT, Rtbf, etc. Vincenzo Casale lives in Brussels from where he continues his international career.