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THOMAS ZWIJSEN

http://www.thomaszwijsen.com/ 

 

Thomas Zwijsen is best known for his arrangements of famous metal, rock and pop songs for classical/acoustic solo guitar. He has the ability to play vocal melodies, guitar licks, chords and baselines at the same time. With his arrangements Thomas has gained over 15 million views on YouTube (www.youtube.com/thomaszwijsen2007).


Thomas Zwijsen studied classical guitar at the Artez conservatoire in Arnhem and Latin/ jazz/Brazilian guitar at Codarts in Rotterdam. In combination with his interest in flamenco and metal, this strongly influenced his style of guitar playing.

His first solo album Nylon Maiden contains 11 classical arrangements of Iron Maiden songs. Former Iron Maiden singer Blaze Bayley is featured as a special guest.

Thomas has worked closely with Blaze Bayley; as composer, co-producer and lead guitarist on The King Of Metal album, the Russian Holiday EP and several world tours. In 2017 Blaze and Thomas will record a full acoustic album together, followed by a European tour.

By popular demand Thomas released a Nylon Maiden tab book, containing tabs and traditional scores (and video lessons) for 12 of his Nylon Maiden arrangements. Along with the book a video clip for Fear Of The Dark was published which gained 2,5 million views so far.

Thomas also founded an online guitar school called King Of The Strings. The complete guitar method, specially developed for those who are interested in learning Thomas’ style of guitar playing, is available at www.Kingofthestrings.com

On his second solo album, Nylonized, Thomas welcomed several special guests who gained worldwide fame in the music scene. Among the guest musicians are Kee Marcello (Europe), Derek Sherinian (Dream Theater, Billy Idol), David Readman (Pink Cream 69), Damian Wilson (Threshold, Ayreon) and Blaze Bayley; it was mastered by award winning master engineer Maor Applebaum.

Thomas third full length solo album, Nylon Maiden II, was released worldwide on the 7th of November. The release party took place in Dubai (UAE) and was followed by a tour of 66 shows in South America and a European Tour with Thomas’ newly formed ensemble; the Master Guitar Tour.

The Master Guitar Tour (www.MasterGuitarTour.com) is a collaboration of Thomas Zwijsen and American flamenco (and Flametal) guitarist Ben Woods. The guitarists both play a solo set followed by a virtuoso set together, performing acoustic arrangements of

songs by Iron Maiden, Metallica, Deep Purple, Dream Theater, etc, as wel as original songs.

On the 3rd of October 2015 Thomas released his new full-length album Divide & Unite, containing 11 original compositions. The final song of the album, Unite, is a 9 minute epic featuring guest musicians from all over the world. The video clip for Unite was filmed on 5 continents! (https://youtu.be/g-msFg5XCcY)

In the end of 2015 Thomas was asked by Ortega Guitars to compose songs and record videos (https://youtu.be/-ZVkZomouaE) for their new series of guitars called “the Private Room”. This resulted in an EP called The Castle Suite, released on iTunes in January 2016. Later that year, Thomas started working on a signature model with Ortega Guitars, which will be presented to the public on the Frankfurt Musikmesse in 2017.

Preserved In Time is Thomas’ most recent release. It’s a Nylon Maiden double CD, featuring Thomas’ long time touring and recording partners Blaze Bayley (vocals), Anne Bakker (violin) and Nathanael Taekema (drums) as guests. The album is Thomas’ most pre-ordered and best selling album so far.

The release of Preserved In Time was followed by a successful edition of the Master Guitar Tour, bringing the guitarists to 20 shows across Europe. In October/November 2017, Thomas Zwijsen & Ben Woods will tour all over Europe again.

To support his releases Thomas has toured extensively in Europe, Asia, The Middle East and South America, playing over 400 concerts and guitar clinics in the past five years. In 2017 he will continue to do so, starting with a show in India for over 10.000 people.

Thomas Zwijsen is officially endorsed by Ortega Guitars (www.ortegaguitars.com) and

Aranjuez Strings.

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