The world famous American Concert Organist Carlo Curley will be appearing at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Sunday 15th February @ 2 pm. Admission by donation at the door.

American by birth but of Irish extraction, Carlo Curley - ('It really is my name, can you believe that!') - has a most creditable musical pedigree. His mother was a concert violinist with a Florida symphony orchestra, whilst his grandmother held a conservatoire post as Professor of Piano in Boston. In fact it was she who first encouraged Carlo to take piano tuition when one day she heard him accurately following the melody-line of a Bach piece on his toy piano. 'I was about four and a half years old and it was probably the greatest mistake of my life,' he jokes, 'Because from that moment on, she virtually chained me to the keyboard and forced me to practise every day until my poor little fingers were throbbing.'

By the age of six, young Carlo had set his sights on the local church organ but, perhaps not unnaturally, the organist refused to let him near it. Undaunted by this, our young champion, armed with an empty mineral bottle, returned and promptly smashed his way in through a basement window ! Not even injuries requiring 25 stitches could deter him from his goal, and in Carlo's own words, ' When I finally got my hands on the keys and heard that magnificent sound, I knew that I was hooked, and I've been playing the King of Instruments ever since.'

From an early age Carlo studied music at the North Carolina School of the Arts for talented children, and held his first professional post at 15 years of age, as organist and choirmaster at a large Baptist church in Atlanta, Georgia. By the age of 17 he was touring the USA, and a year later became Director of Music at Girard College, Philadelphia. Initially tutored by the late Virgil Fox, Carlo later came to London to study with the late Sir George Thalben-Ball.

Carlo is justly world-famous for his elegant performances and quick wit. His delightful informality has attracted a whole new following, although not all his contemporaries are so enthusiastic about the tongue-in-cheek approach of someone who occasionally combines the music of the gods with the mischief of the devil.

His self-proclaimed mission is

“to establish the organ at the forefront of musical instruments, even if it takes the rest of my life”.

Carlo plays more than a hundred concerts a year world-wide, including his Battle of the Organs series, where he is joined by a second organist at a separate organ for a programme of exhilarating solos and duets ranging from Schubert and Rossini to Handel and Joplin. Equally popular is his Carlo Curley's Organ Pops series, designed to incorporate choirs, soloists, and audience participation in such favourites as Jerusalem, Rule Britannia and the Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Download flyer for this concert (JPEG)

Further information from: Sherry Shelton, Director of Music & Organist, Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, tel (09) 486 2127, email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

 

 

 

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