Cameron Carpenter
organ
About this Artist
Born 1981, Titusville, Pennsylvania, USA; homeschooled 1981–1992. American Boychoir School (Princeton, NJ), 1993–1995; public performances in USA and Europe as a chorister, accompanist, and keyboard soloist. Homeschooled 1995–1996; University of North Carolina School of the Arts 1996–2000 (high school diploma). The Juilliard School, New York, NY, 2000–2006 (Bachelor of Music in Organ Performance, 2004; Master of Music in Organ Performance, 2006). Many arrangements and transcriptions for organ, mostly of orchestral and piano works, from c. 1996. First organist nominated for a Grammy® Award for the album Revolutionary (Telarc, 2008). Publishing contract with Edition Peters, 2009; emigrated to Germany, 2010; first concerto for organ and orchestra (The Scandal, Op. 3, premiered 2011 at Cologne Philharmonie by Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen under Alexander Shelley). Management by Konzertdirektion Schmid and CAMI Music LLC since 2011; global touring, orchestral engagements, media since 2011. Featured speaker at TED, IdeaCity, Aspen Ideas Festival, other conferences; Leonard Bernstein Award (Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival), 2012. First Organist-In-Residence, Philharmonie Berlin, Season 2012/13; recording contract with Sony Classical, 2013.
Designed, financed, and converted most activities to International Touring Organ (debuted Lincoln Center and Konzerthaus, Vienna, 2014). Extensive global touring with International Touring Organ (“I.T.O.”) in USA, Europe, Russia, China, Australia from 2014 to early 2020 in a variety of formats (solo, concerto, open air, collaborative, broadcast, others). Premiere of Terry Riley’s organ concerto, At the Royal Majestic, in Los Angeles, Geneva, and Berlin, 2014; ECHO Klassik Award (If You Could Read My Mind), 2015. Designed and debuted George W. Mergens Memorial Organ at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, Palm Beach, 2016. Creation of organ and orchestra version of Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, 2016–2017; Artist-in-Residence, Konzerthaus Berlin, Season 2017/18. Rachmaninoff Paganini mounted with I.T.O. and Shanghai Symphony Orchestra (world premiere: Shanghai, 2018), Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Radio Symphony Orchestra Wien, Graz Philharmonic, Bamberger Philharmoniker, Orchestre National du Lyon, Minnesota Orchestra, others, 2018–2019. Rachmaninoff Paganini recorded with I.T.O. and Konzerthausorchester Berlin under Christoph Eschenbach for Sony Classical, 2019.
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