Thirty-four-year-old organist Cameron Carpenter has made a name for himself in the classical music world by flaunting the rules and shirking the norms. And, while he’s received much criticism from the establishment, who resent his nouveau arrangements, elaborate costumes, and less-than-typical hairstyles, he has also gained an immense following. In fact, half the fun of attending a Carpenter show is not knowing what he’s going to play because that’s the other thing about him: He performs sans music charts and rarely divulges a show’s program in advance.
[jump] “Honestly, nobody really cares about the difference between composers and the next,” he told All Shook Down. “Most don’t even know the difference or who they’re even listening to.”
Carpenter started playing the organ at the age of four and had his own reasons for sticking with it. “I felt like I was touching time,” said Carpenter who attended the Juilliard School in New York for both undergraduate and graduate school. “That is something that doesn’t leave you.”
Jokingly, he adds, “However, I should add it doesn’t make great sense to choose the organ as an instrument for its many limitations and being stationary.”
Because of these limitations, Carpenter tours with a fully-mobile organ, called the International Touring Organ, that cost him quite a bit to purchase. (Its market value is $1.2 million, he said.)
When pressed as to why he went through the great expense to have the custom organ made, Carpenter was quite candid. “I have played the organs at both Davies Symphony Hall and Grace Cathedral. They are wonderful, but they are not my instruments,” he said. “I think the idea of the traditional pipe organ being considered the king of the instruments is nonsensical since it has so many drawbacks. I paid for this instrument myself and helped design it to make a one-of-a-kind instrument. It’s not meant to be a substitute for an organ because it does more than any pipe organ ever could. This organ is simply the beginning. One of my ultimate goals is the international standardization of the organ.”
Cameron Carpenter plays January 28 to January 31 at SF Jazz Center.
(SF Weekly)