Bad Boy Organist: what happened next

[New York, NY] – Wherever Cameron Carpenter appears, he generates enormous excitement from audiences and critics alike; and as the only organist in the world filling concert halls from Berlin’s Philharmonie to Davies Hall in San Francisco, it’s clear he is now one of the industry’s most in-demand talents. On the heels of a recent U.S. national television profile on CBS Sunday Morning, the “Bad Boy of the Organ” (CBS) announces his new management team, solidifying his representation throughout the world: CAMI Music, LLC for North America and Asia, and Konzertdirektion Schmid for Europe, the United Kingdom, Scandinavia (including Nordic countries), New Zealand, and Australia.

“There could hardly be a better start to the New Year for a musician than to be simultaneously signed by both CAMI Music and Konzertdirektion Schmid,” says Carpenter. “I’m thrilled that my work has the muscular advocacy of both Jean-Jacques Cesbron and Cornelia Schmid on a combined four continents.”

Formed in 2004, CAMI Music specializes in the worldwide general management and touring of nearly 50 prominent artists, institutions and events across the worlds of theater, dance, and world, jazz, and classical music and beyond. Carpenter joins a roster including such superstars as Lang Lang, Seiji Ozawa, Maxim Vengerov, Howard Shore, Tan Dun, and the American Ballet Theatre.  Specifically, Cameron will join CAMI Music’s Instrumentalists as only the sixth artist in that elite group, alongside Lang Lang, Ray Chen, Khatia Buniatishvili, Mischa Maisky, and Vadim Repin.

“We are thrilled to bring an artist of Cameron’s stature to the roster,” said Jean-Jacques Cesbron, President of CAMI Music. “We are looking forward to introducing our clients to his phenomenal talent and ground-breaking vision of what the organ can do.” 

In addition, Cameron’s manager Tobias Tumarkin of CAMI Music adds “We are so excited to be working with Cameron and strongly believe that he will bring new fans to the organ and the wonderful repertoire, both classical and popular, that it provides.”

Konzertdirektion Schmid is Europe’s leading classical music management, well-known for handling the European careers of artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Peter Serkin, Joshua Bell, Murray Perahia, Yefim Bronfman, Xavier de Maistre, Mitsuko Uchida, among others. Cameron is represented by Schmid associate Benedikt Carlberg as the sole organist on the Schmid roster.

“We instantly knew that Cameron Carpenter is an exceptional and brilliant artist from the very first moment he caught our attention. Not only because he plays the organ in a way nobody has done before – but particularly because of his deep understanding of the music and his absolute dedication to it,” saysCornelia Schmid, who manages the Konzertdirektion as President from their office in Hannover, Germany.

Carpenter, called a “smasher of cultural and classical music taboos” by the Los Angeles Times, started 2011 with the world premiere of The Scandal, a major 30-minute work for organ and orchestra composed by Carpenter and commissioned by the Cologne Philharmonie (KölnMusic GmbH). This was the first major event under Carpenter’s new relationship with world-renowned publishing house Edition Peters, which has signed the composer to an exclusive worldwide publishing contract. Edition Peters, which has already published Carpenter’s Aria, Opus 1 for solo organ and will soon release his Serenade and Fugue on B.A.C.H as Opus 2, will publish The Scandal in two versions, both as Carpenter’s Opus 3 (for organ and full orchestra) and Opus 3a (for organ and expanded chamber orchestra, as premiered in Cologne).

The Scandal, with Carpenter in the solo organ role, debuted on New Year’s Day 2011 at the Philharmonie in Cologne, Germany with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie under the direction of Alexander Shelley. Lauded by press and audiences alike, the performance garnered such praise as from Germany’s Die Welt: “Carpenter…is proving himself to be a clever eclecticist, who understands to entertain with much finesse.”

“I’m honored to watch Edition Peters launching my career as a composer. With the publication ofThe Scandal, Op. 3 in 2011, I hope to begin an ongoing expansion of the secular organ repertoire, particularly in major works for organ and orchestra,” says Carpenter.

For more information on Cameron Carpenter, including his most recently released CD/DVD set Cameron Live! (Telarc, 2010), visit www.cameroncarpenter.com.

Cameron Carpenter

Cameron Carpenter is a dazzling performer and showman, but these are just the first impressions to be had from a diverse and prolific artist. Encompassing the organ in all its iterations – pipe, virtual, classical, and popular – Cameron’s unique voice is emerging as a revolutionary in his field, while still evolving. This exorbitant virtuoso 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 29-year-old (first ever) Grammy^®-nominated organist has already performed widely in the U.S. and abroad, and arranges prolifically for the organ (from Chopin’s Études and piano masterworks of Liszt, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, Medtner, etc., to contemporary pop music and scores from Japanese animé).

“No other musician of Carpenter’s generation has more adeptly fused shrewd showmanship, dazzling technique and profound thinking about his instrument and his place in the musical cosmos…” – San Francisco Chronicle

Contact:

For Media requests:

Amanda Sweet/Bucklesweet Media Amanda@Bucklesweetmedia.com 347-564-3371

For CAMI Music: Tobias Tumarkin Tumarkin@camimusic.com

For KD Schmid: Benedikt Carlberg benedikt.carlberg@kdschmid.de