Carl Cranmer debuted with the Philadelphia Orchestra at age nine, playing Mozart’s Concerto in A Major, K. 488. In addition to solo recitals in Europe, Asia, and North America, he has performed with the Royal Philharmonic of England, the Gulbenkian Orquesta of Portugal, the Juilliard Orchestra and several other orchestras in the U.S. and Asia. Cranmer has performed chamber music with the Grammy-winning Takacs Quartet, violinist Axel Strauss and Akiko Suwanai, and ‘cellist Ovidiu Marinescu,among others. Of his performance of Liszt’s Concerto No. 2, The New York Times’ James Oesterreich remarked “He made light work of Liszt’s fiendishly demanding octaves, scales, and glissandos, showing a fine lyrical strain to boot. And he did it all with lovely, controlled tone.”
Cranmer’s recent performance seasons included the quartet version of Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Dali Quartet, solo recitals in Guangzhou, Beijing, and Xian, China and Seoul, South Korea in Fall 2019, and Gershwin’s Concerto in F with the Helena Symphony Orchestra in February 2020, and in 2022 Schumann’s Concerto in a minor with the Southeastern Pennsylvania Symphony. In 2019 he played solo recitals in Anchorage, AK, Salt Lake City, UT and Guangzhou, China. In summer 2019 he was a faculty member of the Aruba Symphony International Music Festival. His performances have been televised in Madrid, Tokyo, Montreal, Washington D.C. and Philadelphia, and have been aired on American National Public Radio, and radio stations in Tokyo, New York, Chicago, Montreal, Boston, and Atlanta. After he won the Spanish Music Prize and Finalist Prize in the Santander Paloma O’Shea International Piano Competition in Santander, Spain, he performed two solo concert tours of Spain. He has also concertized in France, England, Austria, Japan, South Korea, China, and Canada. His recordings include a solo album titled “Soirée”, of the music of Poulenc, Fauré, Liszt, Granados, Samuel Barber and Chopin, Barber’s Piano Concerto with the Russian Philharmonic, and in 2015 released a CD of Barber’s complete published solo piano music, recorded in Seoul, South Korea. In the coming year he plans to record a CD of Rachmaninov’s Suite Nos. 1 and 2 and other pieces for two pianos with pianist Young-Ah Tak. Cranmer has performed in Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, and Carnegie Weill Hall in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., and the Academy of Music, Verizon Hall and the Perelman Theater in Philadelphia. Dr. Cranmer was the Grand Prize winner of the 1994 Missouri Southern Piano Competition.
Cranmer received his Doctoral and Masters degrees, and Professional Studies Certificate from the Juilliard School, and his undergraduate degree from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Over the past five years, he has been a member of the piano faculty of the Cooper International Piano Festival at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. In 2016 he became Visiting Artist Faculty at the new Guangdong Open College-Conservatory in Foshan, China, and in August of 2018 he was invited to be a juror of the international jury for the 12th Moscow International Frederick Chopin Competition in Foshan, China. and was the Artistic Director of the American Piano Forum (APF) at West Chester University, begun 2016-18, and is an Associate Professor at the Wells School of Music at West Chester University of Pennsylvania.