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World-Famous Organist to Perform Dedicatory Concert At St. Matthew’s

Cameron Carpenter, the internationally famous American organist, will perform in concert at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, 1410 Chapline St., Wheeling, at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 1.

Carpenter will play the dedicatory concert for St. Matthew’s new Marshall & Ogletree Opus 10 organ. It is the 10th instrument designed, built and installed by Douglas Marshall and David Ogletree, the Needham, Mass., organ builders who are redefining the digital organ as an instrument of artistic significance.

Tickets are required for admission to the performance. To purchase tickets, call St. Matthew’s parish office at 304-233-0133 or send an email request to rtroeger@wju.edu.

Carpenter, a 34-year-old Pennsylvania native, delights in “smashing the stereotypes of organists and organ music – all the while generating worldwide acclaim and controversy,” according to a biographical sketch. “His repertoire – from the complete works of J. S. Bach and Cesar Franck, to his hundreds of transcriptions of non-organ works, his original compositions and his collaborations with jazz and pop artists – is perhaps the largest and most diverse of any organist.”

A virtuoso composer-performer, Carpenter is the first organist ever nominated for a Grammy Award for a solo album. He also appears regularly as a soloist with many of the world’s great orchestras.

In 2014, Carpenter launched his International Touring Organ – a monumental digital organ built by Marshall & Ogletree – with two Lincoln Center concerts, the release of a Sony album, “If You Could Read My Mind,” and a 31-concert tour to Europe, the United States and the United Kingdom. The International Touring Organ is the eighth organ developed by Marshall & Ogletree.

As a keyboard prodigy, Carpenter performed Bach’s “Well-Tempered Clavier” at age 11 before joining the American Boychoir School in 1992 as a boy soprano. During his four years of high school studies at the North Carolina School of the Arts, he 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.

Carpenter continued composing after moving to New York City in 2000 to attend the Juilliard School. While at Juilliard, he composed art songs; the symphonic poem, “Child of Baghdad” (2003) for orchestra, chorus and Ondes Martenot (an electronic instrument); his first substantial works for solo organ and numerous organ arrangements of piano works. He received a master’s degree from Juilliard School in 2006.

The same year, he began his worldwide organ concert tours, giving numerous debuts at venues including Royal Albert Hall, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Melbourne Town Hall, Tschaikowsky Hall in Moscow and Davies Hall in San Francisco.

His first album for Telarc, the Grammy-nominated “Revolutionary” (2008), was followed in 2010 by the critically acclaimed full length DVD and CD, “Cameron Live!” He signed an exclusive multi-album recording contract with Sony Classical in 2013.

Edition Peters became his publisher in 2010, beginning the ongoing release of his original works with “Aria, Op. 1” (2010). His first major work for organ and orchestra, “The Scandal, Op. 3,” was commissioned by the Cologne Philharmonie and premiered on New Year’s Day 2011.

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