Artists

With his exceptional musicality, sheer endless technical ability and pioneering spirit, the extraordinary organist Cameron Carpenter is already leaving his mark on recent music history. Ever since the completion of his own instrument, the International Touring Organ (ITO) in 2014, Cameron defies initial scepticism towards this digital instrument and established the ITO on the world’s most prestigious stages. By now, he often performs on the ITO, be it in recital or concerto appearances. This tailor-made instrument, based on Carpenter’s own plans, allows him to perform at almost any location worldwide. Thus far, he has taken it on tour to Australia, New Zealand, Russia and Asia in addition to numerous appearances around Europe and the US. In 2020, for the first time the ITO was installed for a longer period of time at one venue, the “Alte Münze”, an old factory complex in Berlin.

Also in 2020 Cameron has taken a digital organ on a tour through the German capital Berlin and other German cities, bringing Bach to elderly people isolated by the coronavirus pandemic.

Cameron’s latest album, Rachmaninoff & Poulenc, is a live recording with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin released in April 2019 on Sony Classical, which received the OPUS KLASSIK award in 2020. In spring 2016, following the ECHO winning release of If You Could Read My Mind (2014), his second album for Sony Classical, All You Need is Bach appeared, ‘unconventional’ and ‘supremely agile’ (Rolling Stone). Additionally, Carpenter was the first organist ever to receive a Grammy nomination for his album Revolutionary (2008) which he recorded for Telarc who have also released his Bach recording Cameron Live!

Upcoming European highlights of the 2021/2022 season are performances in Munich, Berlin, Bonn, Zagreb, Budapest and Moscow.

Born in 1981 in Pennsylvania, USA, Carpenter 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. Carpenter transcribed more than 100 works for organ, amongst others Mahler’s Symphony No. 5. He composed his first own works during his studies at Juilliard School in New York, from 2000 – 2006, where, at the same time, he also had piano lessons with Miles Fusco. In 2011 his concerto for organ and orchestra ‘The Scandal’ was premiered by Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen at the Kölner Philharmonie. In 2012 he received the Leonard Bernstein Award of the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival and was Artist in Residence of Konzerthaus Berlin in the 17/18 season.