Cameron Carpenter is something of a rock star in the world of classical music. An alum of The Juilliard School, in 2008 he was nominated for a Grammy for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without Orchestra) for his album “Revolutionary.”
He also developed the International Touring Organ in collaboration with the piano firm Marshall & Ogletree, based in Needham. Transported around in a large truck while Carpenter is on tour (he was 96 days in when we spoke), the instrument is one of a kind — much like the artist himself, an openly bisexual LGBTQIA+ activist who bends norms in both life and art.
The musician appears to play the organ with his whole body (he uses his hands and feet) and has been known to mix genres with compositions such as “All You Need is Bach,” on his eponymous album, which takes inspiration from The Beatles’ “All You Need is Love” and Bach’s Invention No. 8 in F major.
We recently checked in with Carpenter, who plays the Fine Arts Center Concert Hall at the University of Massachusetts Amherst tonight, Friday, at 8 p.m., to learn more.
Daily Hampshire Gazette: What was the process of developing the International Touring Organ?
Cameron Carpenter: I designed two other organs for [Marshall & Ogletree], which were prototypical for this one. The organ itself was roughly a 10-year project. Conceptually, it’s intended to assemble components of ideal organs from around the country… All of the sounds in the organ are American. They’re from American organs, made in the U.S.A. I feel very strongly about that because I believe that the zenith of organ-building history was reached not in Europe, but in America.
DHG: You cover such a wide array of genres and mix them all together. What draws you to specific styles, and how do you decide that you’re going to fuse them together?
CC: I have a reputation for mixing genres, but I would say that compared to a great number of other artists — for instance Chris Thile, the mandolinist — I don’t really do that much genre mixing. I dabble, but the reality is that I am a traditional, classical musician. The tradition to which I belong probably has more to do with the late 19th century than the era of postmodernism, or post-postmodernism, I’d suppose you’d say. I essentially am a performer, composer and improviser. In general, I’ve made some song paraphrases like Burt Bacharach and some old music from the ’60s and ’70s that I like. But it’s all done through the methodology of what you’d consider classical circumstances.
DHG: So when you are choosing different textures to incorporate, what inspires that decision? What draws you to something?
CC: There’s not really inspiration involved. It just depends on what content you need. The practical reality to touring in America in 2018 as a classical musician is you have to have a powerful degree in variety of what you do in musical literacy as well. So it’s not really a matter of inspiration, it’s kind of just strategic.
DHG: Is there anything that you’ve seen recently emerging in the musical landscape that you think is really interesting?
CC: Well, obviously the major world news in music is the awarding of the Pulitzer Prize to Kendrick Lamar. The opening of that prize to a non-classical artist has huge implications. The Pulitzer Prize has generally been the domain of classical music. So, classical musicians are caught in a hard place… anyone with even the slightest degree of consciousness can well realize that it would be about time that the world of serious academia finally got it together to make a meaningful acknowledgment of hip-hop or rap, or black music in general.
In time, the awarding of the Pulitzer Prize to an aggressively commercial superstar raises questions about the threat of that prize as a stronghold of music that is non-commercial. I would consider myself part of [that]. I’m a completely insignificant artist commercially, so that event is a watershed moment for me, in a way, because though most of my colleagues and most of the classical music world have extreme difficulties admitting this — classical music is in its end phase. A person like me, who can earn a living as a classical musician playing abstract works… I think my generation is the last to enjoy that possibility of a career.
DHG: Do you think classical music could have a revival? Or that it should?
CC: It’s not something that really can have a revival. It’s a body of literature that will exist; it’s part of the humanities. The idea of it having a revival is, itself, a commercial idea.
DHG: So you’ve been playing the organ for 31 years. Do you remember what first drew you to it?
CC: I could not verbalize it at the time, but the fact is, in that moment, I understood in some integral way that the organ has a fundamental difference from every other instrument. Every other instrument — whether it’s the clarinet, the bass drum, the piano or the human voice — will produce sound and can be made so to do only in direct proportion to the energy invested in that instrument by the human body, which means that there is a direct relationship between the stamina of the performer and their ability to articulate a musical concept. With the organ, a note is held as long as it is continued to be held. In some ways, that aspect of the organ is more interesting than the music that is made, actually.
DHG: What is the most enjoyable part of performing to you?
CC: I wouldn’t consider performing to be terribly enjoyable. I do it because I have that opportunity, and I have an affection for it, but I wouldn’t say that I enjoy it, exactly.
DHG: So what about making music or writing music?
CC: Again, enjoyment wouldn’t be my first word. It’s a work, it’s a practice. There is a reason you refer to “works of music” as “works.” They’re work, they’re works of a lifetime to compose and they require a lifetime of understanding.
DHG: Is there a completed work of yours that you’re really proud of or that you think of as your best?
CC: No. I stopped composing a year and a half ago. I rejected all of my compositions. I actually no longer compose at all. I do remain an improviser. I hung onto that. But I destroyed most of my compositions.
DHG: Why did you make that choice?
CC: Because I determined my music is worthless. To borrow a phrase from probably the greatest 20th-century pedagogue Nadia Boulanger, who also gave up composition in her youth: “If there is one thing of which I’m certain, it is that my own music is worthless.”
Meaning that the time and effort that is required for me to compose does not generate music that justifies the time required to do it. It’s not about my music being bad. Some of my music is good, but who needs a little good music?
Cameron Carpenter, featuring the International Touring Organ, will perform Friday, April 27 at 8 p.m. in the Fine Arts Center Concert Hall at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, 151 Presidents Drive. After the performance, audience members are invited to attend the Fine Art Center’s “Faces of the Fabulous” post-show event, in the lobby of the Concert Hall. The event is part of ArtWeekMA’ s first statewide promotion and is a celebration of diversity and inclusion in the arts.
