Joachim Carr
The Norwegian pianist Joachim Carr has over the last few years established himself as one the most exciting musicians to emerge from Scandinavia. The past season's highlight saw him performing the Grieg A minor Concerto with the Bergen Philharmonic under John Storgårds at the closing concert of the Bergen International Festival.

He has won several international prizes, including the First Prize, the Audience Award as well as the Orchestra's Prize of the Bergen Philharmonic at the International Edvard Grieg Piano Competition in 2014. The same year he also won the First Prize at the International Chamber Music Competition in Lyon with his regular violin partner, Diana Tishchenko. Previously, he had received the coup de coeur Special Prize for his recital at the Concours Clara Haskil in 2013, and the Boris Pergamenschikow Prize for contemporary chamber music in Berlin with his Trio Korngold. Following his traditional debut recital at the Oslo University Aula in 2015, he received the Robert Levin Prize.

He has performed with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the Lithuanian State Symphony, the Trondheim Symphony, the Ålesund Symphony, and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, collaborating with conductors Alexander Vedernikov, Gintaras Rinkevicius, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Leo McFall, Eivind Aadland and Bjarte Engeset.

A versatile chamber musician and recitalist, he has been invited to festivals such as the Klavierfestival Ruhr, Zermatt Festival, Bergen International Festival, Lofoten Piano Festival, Cully Classique, Bach Festival Moscow, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Salzburger Kammermusikfestival with chamber music partners including Antje Weithaas, Andrei Ionita, Ingrid Fliter, Bertrand Chamayou, Henri Demarquette and Arve Tellefsen.

Born 1988 in Bergen, important musical impulses in his youth came 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 also received invaluable advice from Rita Wagner and Ferenc Rados.

Of his debut album, released in 2014 on Claves and featuring early works by Schumann, Brahms and Berg, Diapason wrote: “these performances place him amongst the most promising pianists of his generation”. For the Naxos Grand Piano label he is currently in the process of recording piano concertos by the forgotten composer Halfdan Cleve with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra.

Due for release in 2018 is a duo recording with violinist Diana Tishchenko with works by Debussy, Janáček and Prokofiev for the Betont label and a guest performance in Liszt's Hungarian Phantasy with the Royal Norwegian Navy Band as part of Naxos' complete Percy Grainger series.