Five Fast Facts: Minnesota Orchestra featuring Organist Cameron Carpenter and Conductor Akiko Fujimoto
Organist Cameron Carpenter makes his Northrop debut on Mar 27 & 28 in a concert with Minnesota Orchestra and conductor Akiko Fujimoto. Here are five things to know before the performances.
1. Cameron Carpenter is known for reshaping audiences’ perceptions of the pipe organ. Trained at the Juilliard School, he has transcribed more than 100 works for the organ and released various recordings including All You Need is Bach, which topped the Billboard Classical Charts in 2016.
2. Last year the Minnesota Orchestra returned to Northrop, its home from 1929 to 1974, for two concerts that were the inaugural performance highlighting the newly-restored Aeolian-Skinner Opus 892 pipe organ.
3. In 2014, Carpenter celebrated the completion of his tailor-made digital organ, the International Touring Organ. Created by Marshall & Ogletree, this mobile, pipeless organ contains sampled sounds from traditional organs. However, Carpenter will play on Northrop’s organ for the Mar 27-28 concerts.
4. Carpenter was the first organist ever to be Grammy-nominated for a solo album, Revolutionary, in 2009.
5. This performance will mark Minnesota Orchestra Associate Conductor Akiko Fujimoto’s classical subscription series debut. Fujimoto was named Minnesota Orchestra’s second ever female staff conductor when she started as assistant conductor in 2017.
