David Aaron Carpenter / Philharmonia Orchestra / Christoph Eschenbach ELGAR & SCHNITTKE Viola Concertos

23-year-old violist David Aaron Carpenter has recently emerged as one of the world's most promising young talents. This recording, his debut album, couples two concertos: a viola arrangement of Sir Edward Elgar's famous Cello Concerto and the Viola Concerto (1985) by Alfred Schnittke. Christoph Eschenbach leads the Philharmonia Orchestra. David Aaron Carpenter adapted much of the Elgar Concerto himself, using the well-known and Elgar-sanctioned arrangement completed by Lionel Tertis in 1930 as a basis.

Since making his orchestral debut in 2005 with The Philadelphia Orchestra under Christoph Eschenbach, David Aaron Carpenter has been performing with leading musicians and orchestras in the United States and Europe. In 2006, he won the the prestigious Walter E. Naumburg Viola Competition. In 2007, he became the first American and so far the youngest protégé for the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative and the protégé of world-renowned violinist and violist Pinchas Zukerman. He was chosen among an international selection that included every violinist and violist of his generation.

David Aaron Carpenter has been acclaimed as producing, "a seductively rich sound and demonstrating both a forceful interpretive personality and remarkable control of his instrument," (The New York Times) and, "whose beautiful modulated tone makes a striking impression." (The Strad)