Carlo James Curley (August 24, 1952 – August 11, 2012) was an American classical concert
organist
An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ (music), organ. An organist may play organ repertoire, solo organ works, play with an musical ensemble, ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumentalist, instrumental ...
who lived much of his later life in Great Britain.
[Black, Fergus (7 October 1989).]
Carlo Curley
. ''Glasgow Herald
''The Herald'' is a Scottish broadsheet newspaper founded in 1783. ''The Herald'' is the longest running national newspaper in the world and is the eighth oldest daily paper in the world. The title was simplified from ''The Glasgow Herald'' in ...
''. p. 4, Retrieved 6 November 2010.
Curley was born into a musical family in
Monroe, North Carolina
Monroe is a city in and the county seat of Union County, North Carolina, United States. The population increased from 32,797 in 2010 to 34,551 in 2020. It is within the rapidly growing Charlotte metropolitan area. Monroe has a council-manager f ...
, US,
and attended the North Carolina School of the Arts
The University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) is an arts school in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It grants high school, undergraduate, and graduate degrees. Founded in 1963 as the North Carolina School of the Arts by then-Governo ...
and by the age of 15 was organist at a large Baptist church in Atlanta, Georgia. He subsequently studied with Virgil Fox
Virgil Keel Fox (May 3, 1912 in Princeton, Illinois – October 25, 1980 in Palm Beach, Florida) was an American organist, known especially for his years as organist at Riverside Church in New York City, from 1946 to 1965, and his flamboyant "Heavy ...
, Robert Elmore, George Thalben-Ball
Sir George Thomas Thalben-Ball (18 June 1896 – 18 January 1987) was an Australian organist and composer who spent almost all his life in England.
Early life
George Thomas Ball (he later took the additional name of "Thalben") was born in Sydn ...
and Arthur Poister. His long-time friend and confidant Robert Noehren was another noted influence. At 18, he was director of music at Girard College
Girard College is an independent college preparatory five-day boarding school located on a 43-acre campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The school was founded and permanently endowed from the shipping and banking fortune of Stephen Girard upon h ...
in Philadelphia.[ Curley developed his performance style in the manner of Virgil Fox, with respect to popularising classical organ music popular to a wider audience, which included his arrangements and transcriptions of pieces from other classical genres.
He was the resident organist at the ]Alexandra Palace
Alexandra Palace is a Grade II listed entertainment and sports venue in London, situated between Wood Green and Muswell Hill in the London Borough of Haringey. It is built on the site of Tottenham Wood and the later Tottenham Wood Farm. Origi ...
in the 1970s and was the first classical organist to perform a solo organ recital at the White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...
for President Jimmy Carter. He also played before several European heads of state and toured extensively throughout the world, earning the marketing nickname "the Pavarotti of the Organ". He was one of only a few concert organists worldwide who supported themselves exclusively by giving recitals, concerts and master classes, without any supplement from teaching or church position.
Curley used a substantial Allen touring organ where the venue lacked an instrument of sufficient scope to support his repertoire. He recorded commercially for various labels such as RCA
The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...
, ProArte, Rediffusion and Decca International. He participated in several 'Battle of the Organs' concerts, and his final such concert was in June 2012 at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral with his friend Ian Tracey using a Copeman Hart instrument.
He served as patron for numerous music societies as well as for the newly formed British Academy of Music. He was involved in organ design and construction and served as advisor to numerous clients, including Melbourne City Council (Australia), and The Cube, Shiroishi (Japan). His autobiography ''In The Pipeline'' was published by HarperCollins
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...
in 1998. One of his Allen organs is now used in the Cathedral of St Michael and St George in Aldershot
Aldershot () is a town in Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme northeast corner of the county, southwest of London. The area is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Alders ...
in the UK.
The sheet organ music 'Carlo Curley Collection' is available from ChurchOrganWorld and consists of three pieces he often opened his recitals with; his unique arrangements of Largo from the ‘New World Symphony’, ‘Ar Hyd y Nos’ and ‘Eternal Father Strong to Save’.
A life-long bachelor
A bachelor is a man who is not and has never been married.Bachelors are, in Pitt & al.'s phrasing, "men who live independently, outside of their parents' home and other institutional settings, who are neither married nor cohabitating". ().
Etymo ...
, Curley died on 11 August 2012 aged 59 in Melton Mowbray
Melton Mowbray () is a town in Leicestershire, England, north-east of Leicester, and south-east of Nottingham. It lies on the River Eye, known below Melton as the Wreake. The town had a population 27,670 in 2019. The town is sometimes promo ...
, England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. His ashes are interred in the grounds of Pershore Abbey
Pershore Abbey, at Pershore in Worcestershire, was an Anglo-Saxon abbey and is now an Anglican parish church, the Church of the Holy Cross.
History
Foundation
The foundation of the minster at Pershore is alluded to in a spurious charter of King ...
in Worcestershire
Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...
.
Discography
Albums
*''Principals Unshackled'' (early 1970s), recorded at Fountain Street Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan
*''Sculpture in Sound'' (1970s), recorded at Atlantis Sound Studios in Decatur, Georgia
*''Carlo Curley Plays Bach'' (1978), recorded at Vangede Church, Copenhagen, Denmark (RCA)
*''The Incredible Carlo Curley Plays the Organ of the Royal Albert Hall'' (1978)
*''Carlo Curley – Goes Digital'' (1979), Chalfont Records
*''Popular Organ Pieces'' (1984)
*''The Finest Hour'' (1987), Proarte
*''The Emperor's Fanfare'' (1990), Decca (on Argo label)
*''Brightly Shining'' (1991), Decca (on Argo label)
*''Organ Imperial'' (1991), Decca (on Argo label)
*''Organ Fantasia'' (1992), Decca (on Argo label)
*''Bach Favourite Organ Works'' (1992), Universal
*''Dueling Organs'' (1993), Proarte - with Lyn Larsen
*''The World of Carlo Curley'' (1994), Decca
*''Bach Great Organ Works'' (1995), Decca
*''Inaugural Concert'' (1997)
*''Toccata - Organ Favourites'' (1998), Decca
*''Concert Favorites'' (1998)
*''A Genesis in Harmony'' (2003)
Video
*''Organ Imperial'' (1993), Decca
*''The Carlo Curley Classic Collection'' volumes 1, 2 and 3 (2009)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Curley, Carlo
1952 births
2012 deaths
American classical organists
American male organists
Musicians from North Carolina
20th-century classical musicians
20th-century American male musicians
Male classical organists