Born 1985 in south-east London - Matt Farthing always had an interest in the arts: specifically, using them as expressive outlets. With itchy feet, courtesy of his Romani ancestors, and a tendency to become bored very quickly - he was not particularly well-suited to education and announced to his bemused parents, at the age of 8, that he wanted to take up the violin and become an international freelance soloist. His parents signed him up for recorder lessons. Fortunately, forever the devious little swine, Matt changed the instrument lesson request form to read 'violin' and started learning with Jonathan Josephs later that year. Parallel to this and his keen interest in reading, Matt became heavily inspired by the artistic work of his grandfather - Dave Walls. This interest spread to the works of artists as eclectic as Salvador Dali, Frank Miller, Gustav Klimt and Paul Klee. The spark really lit when he studied under A. Davies at Langley Park School who encouraged Matt to really cut loose with his style and drop all the pre-conceptions to what art 'should look like' - leading to an A* for GCSE, and a subsequent highly sucessful exhibition.

Almost exactly 11 years later, with multiple high profile violin performances, a fair few band gigs on guitar, exhibitions and a published poem - Matt Farthing moved up to Manchester to study at the Royal Northern College of Music - where he had been awarded the Olive Zorian Bequest to study with eminent violin teacher - Yossi Zivoni. A slightly raw time in his life, Matt endured a lifetime of experiences between the summer of 2003 and the winter of 2005 - experiences that gave him what he now considers an almost limitless pool from which to draw inspiration for his artistic and expressive endeavors.

Matt now lives with his fiance in Castlefield, Manchester and is in his final year of study at the Royal Northern. Still finding time for visual arts and literature has become difficult, but paid work is gradually coming to fruition and these too have found a place in Matt's professional career. On top of the countless side-projects that he is just aching to bring to life - he works as a freelance musician and composer with gigs ranging from leading the 2nd violins in the Chorley Symphony Orchestra for their Elgar celebration concerts, Leading the Idiom Recording orchestra for their recording of the soundtrack to the upcoming film from Abigail Anketell-Jones, "Eye of Heaven", playing Mandolin in a performance of Ligetti's "Mysteries of the Macabre" and breaking his strings playing Gypsy/Klezmer music in his band - "Yitzak". Add to this a growing number of art commissions, gigs with the Farthest Thing project, compositional commissions and a not yet fully formed but capable home studio - he is happy, he is healthy and is finally ready to commit to a life of poverty and living off the arts.

Thanks for reading.