![]() ![]() ![]() He calls himself bisexual, or ‘omnisexual’, and admits to experiencing confusion with his gender identity. Indeed, as Philip Rice notes, Carpenter has come to be known as ‘the very embodiment of camp in the classical music world’. Besides requiring a consistent and versatile instrument, which would make it possible for the organist to play the same music regardless of the venue, Carpenter wanted to promote the audience’s sense of connection with the organist through liberating the organ from its enclosure.Ĭarpenter’s mission to move organ music into the future also includes shaking up the conventions of classical music with a boldly experimental performance style, permeated with the aesthetic of camp. Carpenter’s motivation behind designing an updated version of the organ was to ‘innovate the relationship between organ and organist’. The sounds of this International Touring Organ have been sampled from various pipe organs ‘from the cathedral to the Wurlitzer’, many of them Carpenter’s favourite instruments. Born in the USA in 1981, Carpenter received a classical training at the Juilliard School, where he was recognised as ‘a talent of Mozartean proportions’, and today he tours the world with a digital instrument built to his own design. The Mohawk-haired musician with his skin-tight outfits and glitzy jewels is probably the most famous organist today, especially outside the circle of organists and organ aficionados. ![]() Organ virtuoso Cameron Carpenter, however, performs camp and queerness flamboyantly on stage. It is known to be the case that queer organists have a long, more or less hidden, history of camp culture within the confines of churches and cathedrals. Cameron Carpenter, photograph by Dovile Sermokas ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |