Art Deco Trio

The clarinet-saxophone-piano Art Deco Trio combines jazz and classical styles in innovative, often humorous arrangements by its pianist Iain Farrington. The Art Deco Trio made its recording debut in 2021 with Gershwinicity, and it returned in 2023 with Classical Changes, offering jazz arrangements of classical hits by Farrington. The Art Deco Trio is made up of clarinetist Peter Sparks, saxophonist Kyle Horch, and pianist Iain Farrington. Sparks studied at Cambridge University with Dame Thea King, then went on to the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied with Nick Rodwell and Angela Malsbury. Since 2016, Sparks has been the co-principal clarinetist of the English National Opera and has appeared with other major U.K. orchestras and as a session musician. He is a clarinet professor at the Royal College of Music in London, having earned bachelor's and master's degrees at Northwestern University in Chicago, studying with Frederick Hemke. Winning a scholarship allowed Horch to attend London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama for post-graduate studies with Stephen Trier. He has appeared in concert and on recordings with various groups around the U.K. and is a member of Michael Law's Piccadilly Dance Orchestra. Since 1991, he has been a professor at London's Royal College of Music. Farrington studied at Cambridge University and the Royal College of Music and has been active as a pianist, organist, composer, and arranger, appearing at venues throughout the U.K. and as far afield as South Africa and Hong Kong. He has been a featured performer and has had his works performed at the BBC Proms, and his arrangement for organ of Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance No. 5 was played at the 2011 wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton. In 2023, Farrington was chosen to compose a work for the Coronation of Charles III and Camilla. Following years of performing together in various ensembles at venues around the U.K., the newly formed Art Deco Trio entered the recording studio in 2020 and recorded its debut album, Gershwinicity, turning to Farrington to make arrangements that were suitable for the rather odd combination of clarinet, saxophone, and piano. Offering arrangements by George Gershwin, the album took its name from a 2018 suite Farrington had originally arranged for orchestra that he further transformed for the Trio. The Art Deco Trio's sophomore release, 2023's Classical Changes, included two more of Farrington's rearranged suites, A Sea Shanty Shake-Up (originally for orchestra) and Lay My Burden Down (originally for organ), as well as his takes on a number of classical hits.
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