Carsten Williams

Horn

No.4 Horn

Carsten was born in Ealing, West London. He attended the Royal College of Music Junior Department before studying with Tony Chidell, Jeff Bryant and Tony Halstead at the Guildhall School of Music.

Portrait of Carsten Williams

Carsten later took up a position as horn player at the English National Opera and spent a good number of years ploughing through all the Wagner and Richard Strauss Operas with Mark Elder and others. In December 2007 he emerged from the pit and joined the Philharmonia Orchestra where he remains to this day.

Carsten has travelled extensively, as guest principal horn of Opera Australia, in the section of the New Zealand Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Tucson and Seville. In 2016 he was asked to play solo and conducted part of the closing ceremony of the International Horn Society conference at Ithaca University.

Carsten’s grandad, George, played horn under Furtwängler with the Berlin Philharmonic for 28 years before moving to the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra in 1965.

The No. 4 Horn Chair is endowed by James Rushton

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