About Paul
'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, where since September 2003 he has been
responsible for raising the standard of music offered for the weekly
liturgy, primarily through working with the choir of adults, and
developing the music programme.
Paul studied organ with Dr Roy Massey MBE at Hereford Cathedral and
Professor David Saint at Birmingham Conservatoire, graduating with
first-class honours.
He is President of the Birmingham Organists Association, elected to
serve a second term from March 2011.
Paul's concert schedule takes him all over the UK, where he has
performed on many of the finest instruments.
Recent and forthcoming engagements include solo recitals at Birmingham's
Cathedrals, Birmingham Town Hall, Westminster Cathedral, Westminster Abbey
and St Paul's Cathedral in London, Liverpool
Metropolitan Cathedral, Blenheim Palace, Truro Cathedral, Victoria Hall
Hanley, St Giles' Cathedral Edinburgh, Kelvingrove Art Gallery in Glasgow and Alexandra Palace, London.
He has performed often in Germany, most recently in Münster
where in August 2010 he returned to give a third Angeluskonzert
at the Lambertikirche.
He has given a
Sunday audition d'orgue at Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris, and has
performed three times in
Paul is particularly noted for his eclectic programming, drawing on his
extensive repertoire of organ literature and organ transcriptions. Since
1993 he has given monthly organ recitals in the Midlands, which have
included performances of all six of Felix Mendelssohn's organ sonatas
(to mark the 200th anniversary of the composer's birth) and many other
major organ works in their entirety including the symphonies of Louis
Vierne.
The first 100 of these monthly recitals took place over a ten-year
period on the
very fine 1909 Norman & Beard organ in 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, eventually securing its future 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.
Paul's current series Sunday Afternoon Organ Music takes place at Holy Trinity Parish Church Wordsley, Stourbridge, on the first Sunday of every
month. In addition he can be heard at St Paul's Birmingham on the first
Thursday of every month in the Thursday Live series which he
founded in 2008.
Collaborative projects include an exploration of repertoire for organ
and piano with pianist Michael Jones and a range of songs from Purcell
to Gershwin with soprano Fiona Hammacott. Paul has worked extensively as
choral accompanist, with a particular emphasis on French repertoire. He regularly
accompanies visiting choirs in cathedrals around the country.
He has worked in primary education for 15 years, and also serves as Council member of
the Worcestershire Organists' Association.
He lives in central England 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 and (right)
Westminster Cathedral, London