Cameron Carpenter at his International Touring Organ at styriarte festival 2019
Fit as a fiddle, eccentric as Glenn Gould: Cameron Carpenter from the USA has redefined the organ concert format. And that is by no means only due to his eccentric clothes or his high-tech travelling organ. What has made him a punk icon of his guild is his ingenious approach to the repertoire from Bach to pop.
About the artist
THE PUNK OF THE ORGAN
With his extraordinary musicality and endless technical ability, the American organist Cameron Carpenter is one of the exceptional talents in the international musical landscape. His pioneering spirit has already left its mark on recent music history: with the International Touring Organ (ITO), built according to Cameron’s own plans, he has toured not only Europe and the USA, but also Australia, New Zealand and Asia.
Recordings & Awards
2022 saw the release of Cameron's recording of J.S. Bach's "Goldberg Variations" along with his arrangement of Howard Hanson's "Romantic" Symphony for the Decca label. In 2019, he released the "Paganini Variations" by Sergei Rachmaninoff as well as Francis Poulenc's Organ Concerto with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin under Christoph Eschenbach on Sony Classical, a recording, that was awarded the OPUS KLASSIK 2020. Earlier recordings released on Sony Classical include the albums "All You Need is Bach" (2016), and "If You Could Read My Mind" (2013).
Cameron Carpenter was the first organist ever to be nominated for a GRAMMY for his album Revolutionary (2008, Telarc). The album Cameron Live! (2010) was also released by Telarc.
On Stage
In 2021, he performed Miloslav Kabeláč's Symphony No. 3 for organ, brass and percussion with the Dresdner Philharmonie under the baton of Tomáš Netopil for Deutschlandfunk Kultur. The current season sees Cameron appear in concerts in Berlin, Luxembourg, Graz, Wroclaw, and on tour in the USA.
Career
Born in 1981 in Pennsylvania, USA, Cameron performed J. S. Bach’s ‘Well-Tempered Clavier’ for the first time when he was eleven and became a member of the American Boychoir School in 1992. Besides his mentor Beth Etter, he was taught by John Bertalot and James Litton. At the University of North Carolina School of the Arts he studied composition and organ with John E. Mitchener. Cameron has transcribed over 100 works for organ, including Mahler’s Symphony No. 5., and whilst a student at Juilliard School in New York, where he attended from 2000 – 2006, his composed his own works alongside studying the piano with Miles Fusco. In 2011 his concerto for organ and orchestra "The Scandal" was premiered by Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen at the Kölner Philharmonie, and in 2021, his concerto overture for orchestra and organ "Great Expectations" with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin.
In 2012 Cameron received the Leonard Bernstein Award of the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival.
He is a true pioneering musician, and a classic by-the-book virtuoso.
