ITHACA, NY — Ithaca College Concerts season of “Recitalists Extraordinaire” will conclude on Friday, March 26, with a performance by revolutionary organist Cameron Carpenter. The performance will begin at 8:15 p.m. in Ford Hall in the James J. Whalen Center for Music. Since pipe organs vary so much, Carpenter does not announce his program in advance but tailors it to the specific instrument. His Ithaca performance will showcase recent upgrades and renovations to Ford Hall’s Schlicker organ.

 

Tickets for the concert are on sale at the Ticket Center Ithaca at (607) 273-4497 or (800) 284-8422 or at ithacaevents.com, and at the door if available. Individual ticket prices are as follows:

From Franz Liszt and Vladimir Horowitz to Michael Jackson and David Bowie, the most enduring musicians emerge as revolutionaries in their field but never stop evolving as their careers develop. Encompassing the organ in all its iterations—virtual, pipe, classical, and popular—Cameron Carpenter is following that pattern. He has achieved wide acclaim for his original works and improvisations; for playing Chopin’s Études, op. 10 on the organ; for his design of organs and organ benches; for his sparkling Swarovski-encrusted performance wear and organ shoes; and for his expansion of the organ repertoire into music from film, animé and popular culture.

 

Amid the acclaim, however, it’s worth noting that one of Cameron’s most vocal advocates comes from within the so-called “old guard” of the organ community: John Weaver, formerly the head of the organ departments at both The Juilliard School and The Curtis Institute of Music. In his spoken introduction to Cameron’s first appearance at a national convention of the American Guild of Organists, Weaver said, “This is truly one of the most amazing musical minds that I have ever encountered, a talent of Mozartean proportions, with a technique the likes of which I don’t think has existed on this planet.”

 

In a recent concert at Tchaikovsky Hall of the Moscow Philharmonic, the audience demanded eight encores. The following week, in a concert in St. Petersburg’s Capella, the audience demanded 12.

 

Writers and reviewers call Cameron “genre-bending.” The spring tour of 2010 will confirm his position as the most exciting organist on the concert circuit, and feature his work as soloist, arranger, improviser and composer.