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'Everywhere he plays his organ recitals are received with much acclaim, being a perfect fusion of programme planning, musical playing and exciting stop registrations' Victoria Hall, Hanley, 2007.
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 Roy Massey at Hereford Cathedral and David Saint at Birmingham Conservatoire, graduating with first-class honours. He was elected President of the Birmingham Organists' Association in March 2008.
Engagements in 2008 include solo recitals at Victoria Hall Hanley, Rochdale Town Hall, Birmingham's Cathedrals, St Mary Redcliffe Bristol, Truro Cathedral, St Peter's Ruthin, and Portsmouth Cathedral. He will also perform a series of three informal Sunday Music concerts on the famous Father Willis Organ at Blenheim Palace.
Paul has played frequently in Germany to where he returns in June to give a second Angeluskonzert at the Lambertikirche in Münster. In August he will give a recital at Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris.
Since 2003 he has given an additional twelve concerts throughout the year in the series which he established at Holy Trinity Parish Church Wordsley, Stourbridge. These take place on the first Sunday of every month at 3.00pm.
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 acquired by the Gulangyu Organ Museum in Xiamen City, South East China. Now that the installation there is complete, plans are being made for Paul to give the organ's 100th anniversary concerts in 2009.
Previous recital venues include Hereford Cathedral, Tewkesbury Abbey, Alexandra Palace London, and many others throughout the UK. He performed the inaugural concert on the restored organ at All Saints' Church Wing, Buckinghamshire, the rebuilt organ of Wylde Green United Reformed Church and the new organ at Shernhall Methodist Church, Walthamstow. During 2007 Paul gave concerts with pianist Michael Jones, exploring repertoire for organ and piano by composers including Dale Wood, Flor Peeters and Marcel Dupré.
He has also performed in Poland and the Czech Republic, and further afield in Birmingham's sister city, Chicago, USA, to where he will return in 2010 to give a recital at the Fourth Presbyterian Church, whose instrument is the largest in the city and one of the largest in the Midwest
Paul is a primary school teacher, and also serves as Council member of the Worcestershire Organists' Association. He lives in the West Midlands with his wife Hannah.
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