Williams, Carsten (1969

Horn player from Ealing, England, whose grandfather was a member of the Berlin Philharmonic and gave him his used instrument after retiring in 1965.

Carsten attended the Guildhall School of Music and the Royal College of Music. His teachers were Jeff Bryant and Tony Chidell.

On 14^th March 1992, he and fellow horn players David Bentley, John Peskett and Brendan Thomas performed Robert Schumann’s “Konzertstuck for Four Horns” with the Luton Symphony Orchestra.

He joined the English National Opera orchestra in 1992. Other groups with whom he has performed include the Ambrosian Singers, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Britten Sinfonia, the Choir of the Temple Church, the European Union Youth Orchestra, the Fulham Symphony Orchestra, the Holst Singers, and the Philharmonia.

Recordings on which he appears include Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 (“The Choral”) by the Ambrosian Singers, the soundtrack of The Bourne Ultimatum by John Powell, the original London cast recording of Lord of the Rings, and The Veil of the Temple by the Choir of the Temple Church and the Holst Singers.

On 8^th October 2006, the Britten Sinfonia interpreted Steve Reich’s “Eight Lines” at LSO St. Luke’s in London, England.

Thomas Ades conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican on 13^th April 2007 in a performance of his own “America: A Prophecy”, along with “Orchestral Set” by Charles Ives, “Overture: Les francs-juges” by Hector Berlioz and “Symphony of Psalms” by Igor Stravinsky.

In 2008, Carsten revisited the Schumann “Konzertstuck” with Pip Eastop, Tim Jackson, Corman o hAodain and the Philharmonia under the baton of Oliver Knussen at the Aldeburgh Festival.

Esa-Pekka Salonen was at the helm on 13^th March 2009 when the Philharmonia offered up Gustav Mahler’s “Symphony No. 9 in D major” and Arnold Schoenberg’s “Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 42”, with soloist Mitsuko Uchida.

On 21^st March 2009, the Fulham Symphony Orchestra offered up “An Alpine Symphony” by Richard Strauss and the aforementioned “Konzertstuck” by Schumann at Hammersmith Town Hall. The horn soloists on the Schumann piece this time were Carsten, Chris Larken, Martin Owen, and Michael Thompson.

Lorin Maazel conducted the Philharmonia at the Grand Auditorium on 30^th November 2009 in a concert of Zoltan Kodaly’s “Dances of Galanta”, Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition and Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23”, with Simon Trpceski at the keys.

On 25^th March 2010, the Philharmonia teamed up with Joshua Bell for Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major, Op. 61”. The concert, conducted by Riccardo Muti, concluded with Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 55” (“Eroica”).

Sources:

Williams, Carsten (1969–Present)

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