Photo by Peter Ross

JUST THE FACTS…

CAMERON CARPENTER was born in Pennsylvania in 1981. A keyboard prodigy, he performed Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier at age 11 before joining the American Boychoir School in 1992 as a boy soprano. His first forays into composition began during this time with early choral and string works, including a 1993 cantata for voices and orchestra on passages from Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book. Besides his principal mentor, Dr. Beth Etter, his early teachers included Dr. John Bertalot and Dr. James Litton.

During his four years of high school studies at The North Carolina School of the Arts, he studied the organ with Dr. John E. Mitchener; made his first studies in orchestration and orchestral composition; and transcribed for the organ more than 100 major works, including Gustav Mahler's complete Symphony No. 5 and Robert Schumann's Novelletten, Op. 21. Carpenter continued composing after moving to New York City in 2000 to attend The Juilliard School. While at the Juilliard he composed art songs; the symphonic poem Child of Baghdad (2003) for orchestra, chorus, and Ondes Martenot; his first substantial works for solo organ; and numerous organ arrangements of piano works by Chopin, Godowsky, Grainger, Ives, Liszt, Medtner, Rachmaninoff, Schumann, and others. His teachers at Juilliard were Dr. Gerre Hancock, Dr. John Weaver, and Paul Jacobs; he simultaneously studied with the New York-based piano coach Miles Fusco, with whom he continues to work. Cameron received a Master's Degree from The Juilliard School in New York in 2006.

The same year, he began his worldwide organ concert tours and recorded his first commercial CDs and DVDs, generating a level of acclaim, exposure, and controversy unprecedented for an organist. His first album for Telarc®, Revolutionary, made him the first organist ever nominated for a GRAMMY® Award for a solo album. Edition Peters became his publisher in 2010, beginning the ongoing release of his original works with Aria, Op. 1 (2010).

This remarkable statement, by Allan Ulrich of The San Francisco Chronicle, synopsizes much of what it is that makes Cameron Carpenter special: not only that he is a dazzling performer or a shrewd showman, but that these are just the first impressions to be had from a diverse and prolific artist.

From Franz Liszt and Vladimir Horowitz to Michael Jackson and David Bowie, the most enduring musicians emerge as revolutionaries in their field, but never stop evolving as their careers develop.  Encompassing the organ in all its iterations – pipe, virtual, classical, and popular – Cameron’s unique voice is following that pattern. He is renowned not only for his playing of the great organ works, but also for his compositions which – in their emphasis on color, secularity, and performative freedom – follow in the footsteps of Percy Grainger, Sigfrid Karg-Elert, and Leopold Godowsky.

The result? He is a popular concert hall artist; performs with pop singers like Vinicio Capossela and Bishi; is a frequent guest soloist with international symphony orchestras; and enjoys a career that in only three years has taken him to Royal Albert Hall (London), Melbourne Town Hall (Australia), Tchaikovsky Hall (Moscow), Capella (St. Petersburg), Kimmel Center (Philadelphia), Disney Hall (Los Angeles), Davies Hall (San Francisco), Gewandhaus (Leipzig), Philharmonic Hall (Cologne), and Philharmonic Hall (Berlin). For playing Chopin’s Études, Op. 10 on the organ; for his design of organs, organ benches, Swarovski-encrusted performance wear and organ shoes; for his original works and improvisations; and for his expansion of the organ repertoire into music from film, animé, and popular culture, he is widely acclaimed.

To say he is “acclaimed” begs the question: by whom? In Cameron’s case, not just by reviewers, but by audiences worldwide.  At his Russian debut at Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Hall, he was called back to the stage for eight encores; amidst pounding rhythmic applause at Saint Petersburg’s Capella, for twelve encores. The U.S. Consul General stated that the six standing ovations were the first she had ever witnessed in her four-and-a-half years of attending cultural events in St. Petersburg.

At Cameron’s 2009 New York recital, recorded live as Cameron Live! The CD, the ovations came not only from the capacity audience, but also from the press. The New York Times noticed that “everything (he) did... was meant to show his audience exactly what he was up to, without compromising the serious music he played.”  Of the same concert, Feast Of Music’s Pete Matthews raved: “Are there any miracles left in the modern world? Is the concept of musical genius — represented by flawless technique and effortless execution — nothing but a myth? To all those who question the full capacity of human ability, I have but two words: Cameron Carpenter. His facility and flamboyance on the organ defies description. All you could do was sit and shake your head at the majesty of it all.”

Amid the acclaim, though, it’s worth noting that one of Cameron’s most vocal advocates comes from within the “old guard” of the organ community:  Dr. John Weaver, formerly the head of the organ departments for 25 years at both The Juilliard School and The Curtis Institute of Music. In his spoken introduction to Cameron’s first appearance at a national convention of the conservative American Guild of Organists, Dr. Weaver said:

“This is truly one of the most amazing musical minds that I have ever encountered, a talent of Mozartean proportions, and a technique the likes of which I don’t think has existed on this planet... because if it had, we would all know about it.”