User:Missjessica1721/Carter Larsen

Carter Larsen (born 23 March in San Francisco, California) is an American composer and pianist whose career has been based in London, Hollywood, and Shanghai. He has composed more music than many of the world's most prolific composers to create his magnum opus, Fantasia Suite. His compositional prowess and excellence in performing is backed by a direct lineage to history’s greatest composers including Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Liszt, Brahms, Chopin, and Ravel (see Composing and Performance Lineages).

Andréa Van de Kamp, Chairman Emeritus of the Music Center in Los Angeles declared, “Larsen’s Fantasia Suite is creating a breakthrough with his twenty-first century Neo-Romantic approach. Larsen has embraced the summation of our classical culture in music, while exploding into another dimension of creativity."

Early Life
Born and raised in San Francisco, California, Larsen began piano studies at the age of six. He composed in his teens, becoming the youngest composition student of Juilliard’s summer home in Aspen, Colorado. He graduated from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, pursuing a dual career as composer and pianist. Larsen studied under Conservatory president Milton Salkind (piano) and the legendary John Adams (composition), subsequently working with Peter Feuchtwanger and Ruth Nye in London, as well as Vlado Perlemuter (Maurice Ravel’s assistant) in Paris.

Europe
Beyond his success as a composer, Larsen is also renowned as a concert pianist in Europe, performing over five hundred concerts to electrifying public and critical acclaim. Performances include the Royal Philharmonic and the London Symphony Orchestra as soloist with television appearances and broadcasts on BBC and PBS and the largest FM stations. The composer’s new music video “Appassionato” can be seen regularly on television worldwide and PBS in the Classic Arts Showcase.

Larsen became renowned in Europe for his spirited performances of the High Romantics. In particular, his interpretations of Liszt, Grieg, Rachmaninoff and Saint-Saens made significant contributions to the Romantic Revival and won him acclaim from both audiences and critics alike. London critic Philip Somerich describes Larsen’s playing as “displays of dazzling, but never uncontrolled dexterity of huge hands with scope, power and drama, but connected to a mind which was dictating clarity of phrase and incisive overall vision. He demonstrates impressive brilliance and musicianship from melting melody to storming climax while always retaining clarity of expression and complete control of the keyboard.” His “Romantic Rarities” was citied by BBC Radio as “a sample of Carter Larsen’s versatility and complete mastery in every way.”

Renowned for several world premieres and recordings of previously unknown works of Liszt and Saint-Saens, Larsen became the first pianist to make a CD recording of Saint-Saens solo piano music. Simultaneously, he became a favorite at London appearances such as English Heritage, performing for outdoor audiences up to 17,000.

He was recognized as a brilliant, New Romantic and reviews were forthcoming! The Independent exalted “his torrents of notes, lush harmonies and gorgeous melodies.” The Guardian praised his “delicacy, taste and smooth continuity of line broken only for dramatic effect. Larsen’s romantic sensibilities were evident throughout.” The Daily Telegraph was particularly impressed with his “fluency and panache”, while Christopher Grier of the Evening Standard lauded his “formidable technique with which to back his fancies”.

His 1998 tour included five London concerts in which the composer conducted and performed his original compositions alongside the classics. In May 1999, Larsen’s European tour culminated in the first recording of Fantasia Suite in a live performance at St. Martins-in-the-Fields.

Hollywood
The composer extended his talents to creating scores for films and series writing music for the major Hollywood studios, including Paramount, Fox, PBS, BBC and Discovery. Larsen was asked to compose music for prestigious films, such as Paramount’s “Star Trek” to “Nosferatu” along with “Masterpiece Theatre” and “The Mark of Zorro”. The composer’s films, “The Innocents Mission” and “Love Bytes”, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and his feature “Big Shots” premiered at Cannes. He also served as conductor in the 70th Academy Awards.

London critic Christopher Wood puts it best: “Larsen has seamlessly bridged the worlds of performing and composing, classical and film. Here is a composer with European sensibilities and yet a natural affinity with the world of Hollywood.”

On September 30, 2006, Larsen was further celebrated with another launch of an international series at Pepperdine University, this time entirely featuring his magnum opus, Fantasia Suite. Six performers included one masters and two doctoral candidates from the University of Southern California and featured pianist Aaron McClaskey. The sold out evening, introduced by Catherine Goldwyn, was recorded live. The concerts that followed featured an array of international artists performing the music of Carter Larsen.

Shanghai
Larsen rose as a significant cultural ambassador in May 2008, performing the first step in a trail blazing effort: introducing a new movement in classical music to China’s 100 million pianists. He performed at the Asian premiers of his new magnum opus, Fantasia Suite in Beijing and Shanghai, both sponsored by Hines. In 2010, Larsen was invited to perform Fantasia Suite during the Shanghai Expo 2010, at the Shanghai Grand Theater, the closing night of the International Film Festival and the Shanghai Music Festival.

CNN reported,“Larsen performed Fantasia Suite, which made him famous for his 21st century Neo-Romantic approach. Larsen brings Hollywood glamour and his classical music pedigree. He is one of the few major composers and classically-trained pianists able to bridge the gap between film and classical composition.”

Scott Epstein sums it up “Carter Larsen composes music for our age that is personal, deeply felt, and sophisticated. His music pursues its own path with intense inspiration. Larsen is a composer for our times.”

Masterclasses
Larsen currently offers masterclasses at the amateur and professional levels in Hollywood, Malibu, London, Paris and Vienna.

Fantasia Suite
Published by Edition Isolde (a Carter Larsen Company)

ELEGIE, OP. 1

SOMEDAY, OP. 2

BRIDGES, OP. 3

ETERNAL RHAPSODIE, OP. 4

SEAGULLS OF CAPRI, OP. 5

ETHEREAL NIGHTS, OP. 6

FLIGHT, OP. 7

LAMENT, OP. 8

MASS ASCENSION, OP. 9

SOLILOQUY, OP. 10

CIRRUS, OP. 11

SOLSTICE, OP. 12

GYPSY’S WALTZ, OP. 13

THE GIFT, OP. 14

MIRAGE, OP. 15

SPECTRUMS OF TRIUMPH, OP. 16

PRELUDE IN C, OP. 17

PRELUDE IN A MINOR, OP. 18

KAI, OP. 19

REMINISCENCE, OP. 20

CELEBRATION, OP. 21

BRUNELLA, OP. 22

PIERCED HEART, OP. 23

RAINBOW, OP. 24

CAROUSEL, OP. 25

MOONLIT NOSTALGIA, OP. 26

WAVES OF THE PACIFIC, OP. 27

LA LUMIERE, OP. 28

ELYSIA, OP. 29

THE VISION, OP. 30

CIRCUS WALTZ, OP. 31

DIMANCHE, OP. 32

RAGING LIGHT, OP. 33

AMORE E DESTINO, OP. 34

2010
When Larsen returned July 1st, 2010 from his triumphant Asian tour all eyes were on China. Larsen had just given the world premiere of his largest scale composition to date, Mass Ascension at his June 21 concert in Shanghai. Significantly, the Shanghai concert, staged during the 2010 World EXPO launched Larsen’s annual series at the Shanghai Grand Theatre, which to many is now the Carnegie Hall of the East.

This concert was broadcast on both the Shanghai Arts Channel and the Shanghai International Channel and marked the Asian launch of the Carter Larsen Competition. It was following this triumph Larsen began his Retrospective Recording Series. For the Retrospective scheduled eight days followings his tour, the composer had planned recording nine tracks from his touring program plus an additional sixteen original compositions. (Larsen recorded entirely by memory)

After the composer had finished recording 25 tracks (21 of them original compositions, and 18 of them new, previously un-recorded and in most cases un-premiered compositions), the producers found there was two hours to spare. Larsen had already recorded four times the average material most artists record per session, according to engineer John Kurlander. For the remaining time Larsen asked the select audience and other members at the session to choose randomly Bach’s Prelude and Fugues from the Well-Tempered Klavier, from which he would improvise.

This produced thirty more recordings, now of improvisations inspired by Bach, where Larsen took themes and in real time, very quickly expanded on them harmonically, melodically and rhythmically to produce the most extraordinary original music: a further frontier to his Fantasia Suite. Larsen stresses these preludes only “inspire” him and are “not intended to resemble Bach.” Upon questioning he admitted, “It must be something along the lines of looking into a crystal ball.”

Larsen’s recordings of improvisations inspired by Bach (available on Montage Media), herald a new expression: a realm of not only different processes (improvised rather than composed) but also transcendence into new tonal concepts and style of music itself. In the 2010 sessions, Larsen also recorded Saint-Saëns and Liszt, both composers Larsen championed earlier in his career during the 80’s and early 90s in London. Along with the new recording of Saint-Saëns’ Allegro Appassionato (his previous 1984 recording was on Romantic Rarities), he recorded Liszt’s Venizia e Napoli, both available on Montage Media. Altogether during the two-day session Larsen recorded 55 tracks. These recordings represent a summation not only of his recorded career but also of his development as a composer.

As a Steinways’ artist, Larsen made the decision to record on a Steinway model ‘D’ concert grand piano along with the acoustics of the Raitt Hall at Pepperdine University, Malibu, California. This music is not a stranger to the Raitt Hall as Larsen has experimented with the hall’s acoustics in live concerts and recordings of his music over the last fifteen years.

GRAMMY® winning recording engineer, John Kurlander served as the perfect complement to Larsen’s approach; and working closely as a team with the producers was able to capture and bring to light Larsen’s concepts and ideas. This is in no small way due to Kurlander’s background as EMI’s chief recording engineer; recording many of the top European orchestras and soloists as well as his regular appearance on the credits of Hollywood’s major film scores.Executive producer to the project is Omega Medina, former Twelve-year Senior Manager Classical for the GRAMMY® Awards. Medina’s expertise draws from her vast experience of musical wisdom as an opera singer backed by a Juilliard education. Her invaluable mentoring and decisions from performance and repertoire to mastering at Universal Music has shaped the backbone of these 2010 recordings.

The program of these sessions documents the 2010 EXPO launch of Larsen’s Grand Theater Concert Series in Shanghai. The composer was received with the acclaim of a rock star at the Shanghai Grand Theatre, perhaps China’s most prestigious and coveted of performing venues. He performed the classics, original compositions, and improvisations. Larsen was seen as a cultural icon, for many, dramatically advancing classical music into the future. During his stay he had a multitude of interviews including CNN. This was apparently the first time CNN had interviewed an artist for the Grand Theater. According to sources, Larsen’s concert was also the fastest selling of the season and created the most publicity of any other program at the Grand Theatre during the first half of 2010.

The concert was covered by two television stations, which broadcast to a total estimated audience of 500 million and included the Shanghai Arts Channel filming a documentary of the concert. Endless media interviews were seeking to find the composer’s “secret” to his latest talents which included interactive improvisations with the audience as well as the incorporation of today’s popular and cinematic trends into his ground-breaking Fantasia Suite.

Ten different media photographers including two television crews formed the paparazzi highlighting the buzz surrounding Larsen’s new music as it hit TV audiences in Mainland China. He was literally mobbed after his Monday night performance with fans scrambling for autographs. One woman was so intent on reaching him mid-performance that she rushed the stage! Such overwhelming enthusiasm is a unique phenomenon in the classical music world.

The composer was immediately offered extensive tours across Asia. Numerous sponsors came forward to assist in the promotion of Larsen’s distinct talents, subsequent new music genre and its impact on the cultural world at large. Larsen’s popularity is fueled by China’s 100 million pianists making the composer’s rise to fame in China’s massive cultural “piano mania” all the more powerful and pointing towards a lasting legacy through the performing and recording this new genre by its multitude of pianists.

The pinnacle of media intrigue for his Asian tour was the documentary filmed by the Shanghai Arts Channel during Larsen’s 2010 performance at The Grand Theatre. This required a full camera crew shooting during the entire concert day, capturing, rehearsals, performance and the televised interview. It was in the wake of this turmoil Larsen recorded these pieces.

The insatiable demand for Larsen’s new music and the fascination for the talents of living composer of his stature were reflected in both his first and second appearances in Shanghai. The composer was offered unsolicited sponsorship not only for his own performances but also sponsoring for other artists performing his works. This included one concert agent’s offer for 12 concerts in Shanghai alone over the next year. It is unfortunate Larsen’s composing schedule does not allow time for such exposure. Indeed the ripple of Larsen’s fame has not only touched the 100 million piano players inside China but also an Asian classical listening audience of more than a billion which by many accounts surpasses the listening audience of popular music in the west.

Both co-producer Anya Ivanova and myself are pianists who have studied with the composer and performed his works and are intimately familiar and aware of his performing practices and teachings. Larsen’s dedicated observance of his classical educational lineage includes not only John Adams but also many of history’s greatest composers such as Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Liszt and Ravel. This combined with his acute awareness of popular music culture has produced the extraordinary musical synergy manifested in these editions and recordings.

Larsen’s performing career of over 500 concerts including as soloist with the major orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras has laid the foundation for his performances, projected to spread his music via the wave of “piano mania” emanating from China. Larsen’s appearances have extraordinary public appeal with consistent ovations when he performs as well as the highest praise from critics. Performances of his own compositions elevate the listener to a magical new world different from music in circulation at any time in history.

Additionally, many classical pianists and conserv-atory graduates are studying in depth and perform Larsen’s music to the same degree as Ravel’s or Chopin’s. Pianists are touring various countries and recording Larsen’s Fantasia Suite with resounding success. Popular demand led to the launch of the Carter Larsen Competition; offering pianists all ages and nationalities the opportunity to perform in television and film.

It is the belief of musicians and scholars that this combination is birthing a movement with a legacy that will encompass generations to come. Omega Medina, executive producer to these recordings, states, “Larsen is a classical rock star.” Sheryl Carlin from the Paramount Music Department defines Larsen as “the Chopin of our age.” This mixture of the music, the times and associated promoters has produced the following volumes and recordings. Full of inspiration and ideas, with music way “beyond the lines” of both the classics, original compositions and in the case of the Bach improvisations – a step further yet.

This originality places Larsen in an exclusive territory. At the time of writing, there are no known composers today of his caliber and background composing and performing piano music with this degree of originality and sophistication. Yet equally inspiring is Larsen’s position at the classical forefront as an improviser. Larsen has unleashed extraordinary talents in these eagerly anticipated and yet unchartered musical territories. (Karen Meler, ProducerLos Angeles, December 2010)