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'Everywhere
he plays his organ recitals are received with much acclaim.......a
perfect fusion of programme planning, musical playing and exciting stop
registrations' -
Victoria Hall, Hanley
'Carr's enthusiasm is infectious'
-
The Metro
Paul Carr is Organist and Director of Music at St Paul's in the
Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham, and leads a busy schedule as both solo
recitalist and choral accompanist. He studied under Dr Roy Massey MBE at
Hereford Cathedral and Professor David Saint at Birmingham
Conservatoire, graduating with first-class honours.
He was elected
President of the Birmingham Organists' Association in March 2008.
Paul has performed on many of the finest instruments in the UK.
Recent and forthcoming engagements include solo recitals at Birmingham's
Cathedrals, Birmingham Town Hall, Westminster Abbey, Blenheim Palace, Truro Cathedral, Victoria Hall
Hanley, Rochdale Town Hall, St Giles' Cathedral Edinburgh, Portsmouth Cathedral, Kelvingrove Art Gallery in Glasgow and Alexandra Palace, London.
He has performed often in Germany, most recently in Münster
where in August 2010 he will return to give a third Angeluskonzert
at the Lambertikirche. In August 2008 Paul gave a Sunday audition
d'orgue at Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris.
Paul gives an additional twelve concerts throughout the
year in his series of Sunday Afternoon Organ Music which he established at Holy Trinity Parish Church
Wordsley, Stourbridge, in 2003. These take place on the first Sunday of every
month at 3.00pm.
During the 2009 season Paul performed all six of Felix Mendelssohn's
organ sonatas, to mark the 200th anniversary of the composer's birth.
In July 2008 Paul launched Thursday Live, a new series
of organ recitals at St Paul's in the Jewellery Quarter, on the first
Thursday of every month at 1.15pm.
Between 1993 and 2003 he performed 100 lunchtime organ recitals on the
very fine 1909 Norman & Beard organ at Cradley Heath Methodist Church.
Leading up to and following the closure of the church in July 2004, Paul
and his wife Hannah worked tirelessly to re-home the instrument, which
was eventually re-homed on the other side of the world, at the Gulangyu Organ Museum in Xiamen, China.
Future plans include a visit to Xiamen where Paul will give concerts on
this and other instruments acquired by the museum from around the world.
In collaboration with pianist Michael Jones Paul has explored repertoire
for organ and piano by composers including Dale Wood, Flor Peeters and
Marcel Dupré. He has toured with choirs to Poland, the Czech Republic and Birmingham's sister city, Chicago, USA, to where
he will return in 2010 to give a solo recital at the Fourth Presbyterian
Church, whose instrument is one of the
largest in the Midwest. In the UK his work with choirs has a particular
emphasis on French repertoire. He also regularly accompanies visiting
choirs in cathedrals around the country. In July 2010 he will accompany
Birmingham Festival Choral Society on their concert tour of Slovakia.
Paul has taught in primary education for 14 years, and also serves as Council member of
the Worcestershire Organists' Association.
He lives in the West Midlands with his wife Hannah.
Click
here
to see some of Paul's recent and forthcoming engagements
For Paul's concert programme biography please email him
here
Paul at the organ
of St Lamberti, Münster, Germany
right: following the concert - with good friend Johannes Frickenstein
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