PAUL CARR - Biography
Paul Carr was born in Cornwall in 1961. He studied voice and piano at The Guildhall School of Music & Drama, but as a composer is largely self-taught. He was first published at the age of 17 with a set of Dance Pieces written for the legendary clarinettist, Dame Thea King. Over the years Paul has written much chamber music, various concertos and orchestral pieces, but is perhaps best known for his choral music. In 2011, Classic FM championed Paul’s recording of his new Requiem for an Angel, taking his music to a much wider audience and helping make the Requiem his most frequently performed work with over 35 performances to date in this country and abroad. In 2014, Paul was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Nottingham Trent University for his “significant contribution to music at a national level”.
Various commissions have included a setting of Seven Last Words from the Cross which was premiered in Bath Abbey in 2013 and has since been performed by various choirs in the UK as well gaining repeat performances in America at Easter time. In 2017, English Arts Chorale commissioned and premiered his Stabat Mater, which they also recorded for CD, and recently released on EM Records under the title of “Radiance”. In 2019 the Dutch choral group, Opus, presented three concerts of Paul’s choral music in the Netherlands with the first being given in Amsterdam’s iconic Concertgebouw, and receiving glowing reviews in the national press. His recent Ubi Caritas is fast becoming a choral favourite with choirs and forms part of a set of three pieces on religious texts for choir, with string orchestra and a different solo instrument for each piece.
Paul has also written several concertos including an Oboe Concerto for Nicholas Daniel which was premiered at EMF in 2008 and also recorded on the Dutton label and a Violin Concerto for Rupert Marshall-Luck which was also premiered at EMF in 2016. At the suggestion of Nick Daniel he also made a version of the Oboe Concerto for Soprano Saxophone for the young saxophonist, Rob Burton; it was to have been premiered in Southwell Minster in 2020, but due to the Coronavirus pandemic, it has been postponed.
Classic FM continue to support Paul’s music with many broadcast of his popular Air for Strings which is frequently played by Margherita Taylor and Myleene Klass on Smooth Classics. This work has also been recorded twice: on the Dutton Label by Royal Ballet Sinfonia, conducted by Gavin Sutherland, and on the Stone Records label with Bath Philharmonia, conducted by the composers’ brother, Gavin Carr, which is the recording played on Classic FM.
Most recent works include Old-Fashioned Love Songs for voice and piano or choir & piano; a setting of Ave Verum Corpus for choir, with soprano saxophone and strings ; a 3rd commission from the English Arts Chorale for a setting of the Gloria which was premiered in Surrey in the Autumn of 2018, and a setting of O Magnum Mysterium for Choir, with Oboe, Harp and String Orchestra.
Future premieres include his Four New Seasons: a quadruple commission from 3 choirs in the UK and the Dallas Chamber Choir in America, and is a reimagining of Vivaldi’s iconic Four Seasons, setting 3 poems for each season for choir and chamber orchestra. Into The Light was a commission for a large-scale choral work in celebration of the 1,000th Anniversary of the founding of the Benedictine Abbey in Bury St. Edmunds and the premiere will be given in St. Edmundsbury Cathedral in May 2021. Two further commissions include The Light of Love, a setting of the Requiem Mass with texts in English by Euan Tait, for choir with soprano saxophone, cello, harp and organ and will be recorded in Christchurch Priory in 2020. Paul is presently working on a commission based on Piero della Francesca’s painting “The Flagellation of Christ”, Gathered Together, setting words by Euan Tait, for solo baritone, choir and chamber orchestra.