The Norwegian pianist Joachim Carr has over the past few years established himself as a musician renowned for his musical insight and sensitivity in a reperoire ranging from Bach to Ligeti and beyond.
He is the winner of several international prizes, including the First Prize, the Audience Award as well as the Orchestra Prize of the Bergen Philharmonic at the 14th International Edvard Grieg Piano Competition in 2014. The previous year, he had received the coup de coeur Prize for his recital at the 25th Concours Clara Haskil. Following his debut recital at the Oslo University Aula in 2015 – a long- standing tradition in Norwegian musical life – he received the Robert Levin Prize. For several years, he has also been a recipient of the Norwegian Government Grant for Artists.
A versatile chamber musician, he won several prizes in duo and trio formations, most notably the First Prizes at the 10th Concours International de Musique de Chambre de Lyon and at the Boris Pergamenschikow Prize for contemporary chamber music in Berlin. His chamber music partners have included Antje Weithaas, Radovan Vlatkovic, Lars Anders Tomter, Bruno Philippe, Hayoung Choi, Ingrid Fliter, Bertrand Chamayou and the Doric String Quartet.
As a recitalist and in various chamber music formations he has performed at the Klavierfestival Ruhr, Zermatt Festival, Bergen International Festival, Lofoten Piano Festival, Rosendal Chamber Music Festival, Bach Festival Moscow, PODIUM Festival Esslingen, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Salzburger Kammermusikfestival.
With concerto repertoire, he has appeared with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra, the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, the Arctic Philharmonic and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, collaborating with conductors such as Alexander Vedernikov, Gintaras Rinkevicius, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Arvid Engegård, Eivind Aadland and Bjarte Engeset. At the closing concert of the Bergen International Festival in 2017, he had the honour of performing the Grieg Concerto with the Bergen Philharmonic under John Storgårds.
Born 1988 in Bergen, Carr received important musical impulses in his youth from pianists Jan Henrik Kayser, Håvard Gimse and Leif Ove Andsnes. After studies at the Barratt Due Institute of Music in Oslo with Czech pedagogue Jiri Hlinka, he moved to Berlin and continued his postgraduate studies with Eldar Nebolsin at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler”. In later years he has received invaluable advice from Ferenc Rados and Rita Wagner.
His debut album for Claves Records which presented early works by Schumann, Brahms and Berg was highly praised by critics, receiving the 5 Diapason accolade by the French magazine. He has since recorded works by Liszt and the largely forgotten composer Halfdan Cleve for the Naxos label, as well as live recordings from Klavierfestival Ruhr for Avi-music. His second solo album for Claves, titled Numinosum, awaits release in July 2023.
Apart from performing the classical repertoire, with a special emphasis on the Romantic and early 20th century epochs, he is committed to including his own improvisations into concert programs. He regularly cooperates with jazz and folk musicians, and also performs as a member of the Glorvigen Tango Quartet.