Carolina Eyck

Carolina Eyck (born 26 December 1987) is a German-Sorb musician and composer who specialises in playing the theremin. She is one of the world's foremost theremin virtuosi, and her performances around the world have helped to promote the instrument. She developed a precise new playing technique and wrote the first comprehensive theremin tutor book.

Biography
Eyck was born in 1987, near Berlin, Germany. She is a member of the Sorbian community of East Germany.

Musical history
Eyck began learning piano aged five and violin aged six. She began studying the theremin at the age of seven at a school for musically gifted children in Berlin, where she was taught by a niece of Leon Theremin, the inventor of the instrument. She studied composition, and one of her pieces won first prize in a competition for young composers. A concerto for accordion and orchestra also won awards.

At the age of 16, Eyck invented a new and precise way to play the theremin using exact finger positions. Three years later in 2006, aged 19, she wrote and published the first comprehensive tutor, "The Art of Playing the Theremin", for the instrument, in which she explained how to make specific hand and finger positions in the air around the instrument without touching it.

Eyck made her debut as a player of the theremin with the Berlin Philharmonic in 2002, and was subsequently invited to the Bohuslav Martinu International Music Festival in Basel, the Davos Festival (Switzerland), the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Großes Festspielhaus Salzburg (Austria), the Teatro Nacional Lisbon (Portugal) and the Palace of Arts Budapest.

She has performed around the world at concerts and music festivals, in Poland, the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Sweden, Finland, Great Britain, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Japan, Mexico, Chile, Portugal, Hungary, Pakistan, Turkey and the United States.

During her concert tours, Eyck has collaborated with other musicians and orchestras, including Heinz Holliger, Robert Kolinsky, Gerhard Oppitz, Andrey Boreyko, Michael Sanderling, Gürer Aykal, John Storgårds, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Bern Symphony Orchestra, the Essen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Brandenburg State Orchestra, the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra, the Lapland Chamber Orchestra, the Heidelberg Symphonic Orchestra and the Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg. She was a guest musician in the Hamburg Ballet performance of "The Little Mermaid" by Lera Auerbach in Japan and San Francisco.

Eyck also plays the viola. In 2010 she graduated from the Royal College of Music, Stockholm after three years of study, with a Bachelor of Music degree in the instrument. She has performed with, among others, the Deutsche Streicherphilharmonie.

In 2012, she played the theremin solo at the world premiere of the two symphonies "Mesopotamia" and "Universe" by Fazıl Say. Finnish composer Kalevi Aho dedicated a theremin concerto to her, which she performed for the first time in October 2012. The theremin concerto "Dancefloor With Pulsing" by French composer Regis Campo was written for her and premiered with the Brussels Philharmonic in 2018.

Since 2010, Eyck has been the artistic director of the Theremin Summer Academy in Colmar, France, and has conducted workshops, lectures and master classes worldwide. She was the winner of the International Competition for Composers, presented by Radio/TV Berlin-Brandenburg in 2006. She has conducted workshops, lectures and Masterclasses in Germany, Sweden, Poland, Great Britain, the United States of America, Mexico and Japan.

In 2013, Eyck began performing as a duo with pianist Christopher Tarnow, and in 2015 they released an album of compositions for theremin and piano, Theremin Sonatas. In 2016, Eyck released a recording of her composition Fantasias for Theremin and String Quartet, recorded with the American Contemporary Music Ensemble. Her recording are issued on the BIS, Genuin and Butterscotch Records labels,

In 2015, Eyck received the German Echo Klassik in the category "Concert Recording of the Year (20th/21st century music)" for playing the Theremin Concerto "Eight Seasons" by Kalevi Aho. (Conducted by John Storgårds and played with the Lapland Chamber Orchestra: BIS records 2014.) She released an album of theremin and voice recordings, Elegies for Theremin and Voice, in 2019.

On 14 August 2020, Eyck appeared on the BBC Radio 3 programme In Tune to talk about the theremin. She performed an excerpt from her tribute piece, Friend, and a version of the Doctor Who theme, which was recorded on video.

Compositions

 * "Sciciani—Am wendischen Burgwall" Pictures for Accordion and Strings, world premiere on 16 September 2006 by the Cottbus Philharmonic Orchestra directed by GMD Reinhard Petersen, Soloist: Aidar Gainullin (Moskau)—Bajan
 * "CIANI—Am wendischen Burgwall" Pictures for Theremin and Orchestra, world premiere on 4 February 2007 by the orchestra of the Musikgymnasium Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (specialized high school for musicians) in the French Cathedral Berlin
 * "Syllableaves" Concerto for Theremin and Orchestra, world premiere on 24 April 2010 by the Gävle Symfoniorkester directed by Fredrik Burstedt at the Konzerthaus Gävle (Sweden)
 * "Sauselei" Duet for Viola and Voice (2010)
 * "Fantasias" for Theremin and String Quartet (2015)

LPs

 * Theremin (2008, Servi)
 * Fazıl Say (2013, Imaj)
 * Improvisations for Theremin and Piano (2014, Butterscotch Records)
 * Theremin Sonatas (2015, Genuin) with Christopher Tarnow
 * Fantasias for Theremin and String Quartet (2016, Butterscotch Records)
 * Waves (2019, yeyeh)
 * Elegies for Theremin & Voice (2019, Butterscotch Records)
 * Thetis 2086 (2022 Neue Meister)

Singles and EPs

 * Reja (2018, self-release)
 * Elephant in Green (2019, self-release)
 * Northern Lights (2020, self-release)

Live albums

 * Kalevi Aho (2013, BIS) with Annu Salminen, John Storgård, and the Lapland Chamber Orchestra

Guest contributions

 * Heinz Holliger Oboe Fantasy (2008, medici arts)
 * Dante's Dream (2009, Kick The Flame) – track "Episodes"
 * The Little Mermaid (2011, BFMI) – as the voice of the mermaid using theremin
 * Cellosophy (2012, Timezone) – track "King of Atlantis"
 * The Invention of Love (film) film score by Maciej Sledziecki (2013)
 * Clownwise film score by Petr Ostrouchov (2014, Fog'n'Desire Films)
 * Yeni Sarkilar (2015, Ada Music) – tracks 1, 2, and 4
 * About April by Friend 'n Fellow (2015, Doctor Heart Music) – track "April"

Awards
Eyck was winner of the 2006 International Competition for Composers, organised by Radio/TV Berlin-Brandenburg.

In 2015, she received the German Echo Klassik in the category "Concert Recording of the Year (20th/21st century music)" for playing the Theremin Concerto "Eight Seasons" by Kalevi Aho, conducted by John Storgårds and played with the Lapland Chamber Orchestra, published in 2014 by BIS records.

Books

 * Carolina Eyck: The Art of Playing the Theremin. SERVI Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-933757-08-8
 * Carolina Eyck: Die Kunst des Thereminspiels. SERVI Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-933757-07-X, EAN 4025 1187 0631—German version