Bad Boy on a Pipe Organ

Cameron Carpenter has been on my radar for over a year now. And I was just surprised to see him noted on my local concert calendar. So I may have to make a winter date to see him on Feb 22nd over at Norththrop.

I am guessing most of you don't have much knowledge of him either. But simply put, imagine the quirky cousin of Adam Lambert and Elton John playing classical music on a pipe organ in a large auditorium! With his glitter boots, spiked leather jackets and hair gel with tints - he cuts an image that makes him the Mozart of our time. But don't let that glitter sway you. This man is no bad Liberace wanna-be. He has incredible skills that tame the keys under his massive physical stroking. And this is just his playing and not even accounting for his arranging.

He is very loyal to his classical roots. He can exude an entire orchestra with the "hits" of Bach and Rachmaninoff. From there he can detour into the fringes of Piazzolla or Bernstein. Then again, it is not uncommon to find strange sidetracks into everything from Willy Wonka to Patsy Cline to Leonard Cohen.

 

His technical prowess certainly comes from the dexterity of his fingers on the keys. Meanwhile his feet are nearly dancing on the floorboard. But his true genius comes from the term of #registration, which on an organ is the setting of the myriad of stops that control the tonality of sounds coming from the pipes. He notes that this is the origin of the term "pulling out all the stops" as he flies from one instrumentation to another within the same phrase. 

Here is his take on the Overture from Candide: