Caroline Pearsall

Caroline was born in Southampton, England, to musical parents.
She studied at the Birmingham Conservatoire with Philippe Graffin, Peter Thomas (CBSO), David Angel (Maggini Quartet) and Rohan de Sarum (Arditti Quartet). She received her BMus(Hons) degree and a Postgraduate Diploma. Her curiosity and fascination with new timbres and techniques on the violin led her to working with the contemporary music groups Ensemble Multilaterale, Ensemble Alma Viva (with guitarist Pablo Marquez) and Ars Nova.
Having studied with Juan José Mosalini at the Conservatoire of Gennevilliers and Gustavo Beytelmann at Codarts in Rotterdam after winning a Leverhulme Trust Scholarship, Caroline has developed professionally in the Argentinean tango milieu since 2003. She has performed with numerous groups including Daniel Melingo (Nice Jazz Festival, Le Printemps de Bourges, Oslo World Music Festival, Radio Latina, Radio Inter), Mala Pinta (Classic FM Radio, Royal Albert Hall Café, Paradiso Rock Palace), Septeto La Academia (Festival Ile de France, Zurich Tango Festival), the Grand Orchestra of Juan José Mosalini, Ensemble Montreal Tango, Quinteto El Despues, Gustavo Gancedo, William Sabatier, Tango Orquesta Imperial, La Chicana, Linea Tigre, Amelitar Baltar, Les Fleurs Noires, and Orquesta Silbando. With these different formations she has been on tour in many countries: Morocco, Algeria, Germany, Spain, Italy, Sardinia, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Holland, Sweden, England, Scotland…
In 2006 she won a bursary from the Stephen Arlen Memorial Award to go to Buenos Aires to the International Tango Festival, where she took lessons with famous tango violinists like Pablo Agri, Ramiro Gallo, Leonardo Ferreira and Mauricio Marcelli. She was very inspired by their musical ideas and the rhythm of life in the big capital.
Having always had a profound love for string quartets, she created the group The Firebyrd String Quartet in 2008 in order to search for new rhythmic sonorities and to write arrangements that explore the relationship between string instruments and more percussive playing. With this quartet she plays tango, folk, funk and some jazz with the singer Victoria Rummler. They performed with Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah Sleane. The group has also recorded for Polydor Records. In 2009 she founded the London Tango Orchestra, the first traditional orquesta tipica in the UK, with whom she took part in a BBC documentary about tango music in 2012 and appeared in Mr Selfridge II for ITV as well as performing at numerous festivals including the London Latin Jazz Festival, the South Bank Centre and Kings Place.
She received a Masters in Ethnomusicology from the Royal Holloway University of London in 2011. In the summer of 2014 she won a Winston Churchill Fellowship to go to Argentina for 2 months to interview tango violinists and musicians to write a book about tango violin. She has made a website of this project that you can see here www.tangoviolin.com.
During her time in Buenos Aires she interviewed violinists such as Fernando Suarez Paz, Pablo Agri, Leonardo Ferreyra and performed with the Orquesta Escuela, Orquesta Tipica Adrogue with Jose Colangelo and the Orquesta de Cuerdas Elvino Vardaro with Sexteto Meridonal and Diego Schissi Quintet in the Usina del Arte for the Buenos Aires Tango Festival 2014.
She currently continues her interest in classical chamber and pop music with the Firebyrds String Quartet, and in Argentinian Folklore Music with La Tipica Folklorica , with Serpientes playing tango, free improvisation and soundpainting.
She is also learning the Japanese shakuhachi flute and started a tango orquesta escuela to teach people how to play tango music in London three years ago.
She studied at the Birmingham Conservatoire with Philippe Graffin, Peter Thomas (CBSO), David Angel (Maggini Quartet) and Rohan de Sarum (Arditti Quartet). She received her BMus(Hons) degree and a Postgraduate Diploma. Her curiosity and fascination with new timbres and techniques on the violin led her to working with the contemporary music groups Ensemble Multilaterale, Ensemble Alma Viva (with guitarist Pablo Marquez) and Ars Nova.
Having studied with Juan José Mosalini at the Conservatoire of Gennevilliers and Gustavo Beytelmann at Codarts in Rotterdam after winning a Leverhulme Trust Scholarship, Caroline has developed professionally in the Argentinean tango milieu since 2003. She has performed with numerous groups including Daniel Melingo (Nice Jazz Festival, Le Printemps de Bourges, Oslo World Music Festival, Radio Latina, Radio Inter), Mala Pinta (Classic FM Radio, Royal Albert Hall Café, Paradiso Rock Palace), Septeto La Academia (Festival Ile de France, Zurich Tango Festival), the Grand Orchestra of Juan José Mosalini, Ensemble Montreal Tango, Quinteto El Despues, Gustavo Gancedo, William Sabatier, Tango Orquesta Imperial, La Chicana, Linea Tigre, Amelitar Baltar, Les Fleurs Noires, and Orquesta Silbando. With these different formations she has been on tour in many countries: Morocco, Algeria, Germany, Spain, Italy, Sardinia, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Holland, Sweden, England, Scotland…
In 2006 she won a bursary from the Stephen Arlen Memorial Award to go to Buenos Aires to the International Tango Festival, where she took lessons with famous tango violinists like Pablo Agri, Ramiro Gallo, Leonardo Ferreira and Mauricio Marcelli. She was very inspired by their musical ideas and the rhythm of life in the big capital.
Having always had a profound love for string quartets, she created the group The Firebyrd String Quartet in 2008 in order to search for new rhythmic sonorities and to write arrangements that explore the relationship between string instruments and more percussive playing. With this quartet she plays tango, folk, funk and some jazz with the singer Victoria Rummler. They performed with Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah Sleane. The group has also recorded for Polydor Records. In 2009 she founded the London Tango Orchestra, the first traditional orquesta tipica in the UK, with whom she took part in a BBC documentary about tango music in 2012 and appeared in Mr Selfridge II for ITV as well as performing at numerous festivals including the London Latin Jazz Festival, the South Bank Centre and Kings Place.
She received a Masters in Ethnomusicology from the Royal Holloway University of London in 2011. In the summer of 2014 she won a Winston Churchill Fellowship to go to Argentina for 2 months to interview tango violinists and musicians to write a book about tango violin. She has made a website of this project that you can see here www.tangoviolin.com.
During her time in Buenos Aires she interviewed violinists such as Fernando Suarez Paz, Pablo Agri, Leonardo Ferreyra and performed with the Orquesta Escuela, Orquesta Tipica Adrogue with Jose Colangelo and the Orquesta de Cuerdas Elvino Vardaro with Sexteto Meridonal and Diego Schissi Quintet in the Usina del Arte for the Buenos Aires Tango Festival 2014.
She currently continues her interest in classical chamber and pop music with the Firebyrds String Quartet, and in Argentinian Folklore Music with La Tipica Folklorica , with Serpientes playing tango, free improvisation and soundpainting.
She is also learning the Japanese shakuhachi flute and started a tango orquesta escuela to teach people how to play tango music in London three years ago.