Carter Muller is a young Dutch American classical pianist and aspiring conductor. He was born in Amsterdam on May 30th 2001. When he was seven his family moved to Seattle where he received his first piano lessons from his grandmother. It was love at first sight with the piano. After a few weeks he exclaimed: I am a pianist, it's in my blood! Since then, music has been the most important aspect of his life.
Carter regularly performs on various podia throughout the Netherlands and abroad. He participated in a chamber music project with members of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, with whom he gave several performances of the first piano quartet by Mozart. In November 2014 Carter gave a solo performance at Lang Lang's concert in the Royal Concert Hall in Amsterdam. In April 2016 he gave his solo debut with the Sinfonia Rotterdam Orchestra. In February 2017 he garnered the attention of Dutch national media when he organized a concert as a school project in the Philharmonie in Haarlem in which he gave a solo piano performance and conducted symphonic works with an ensemble of young talents that he arranged himself. In June 2018, Carter performed the first movement of Chopin's Concerto in F minor in the Great Hall of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam with the Residentieorkest. In December 2022, he had his debut performance with Klangforum Wien, one of the world’s leading ensembles for contemporary music. In spring 2023, he performed as a soloist with the Arc-en-Ciel Ensemble as well as the Hradec Kralové Philharmonic Orchestra. Artists he has collaborated with include Nils Mönkemeyer and Adrian Brendel. Carter has also performed several times on national television and radio. He was featured in the NTR documentary, Nieuwe Meesters, performed on Podium Witteman and was a guest at the late night shows Jinek and Pauw & Witteman.
His repertoire stretches from Bach and Beethoven to Chopin, Liszt, Debussy, Prokofiev and further to contemporary music. In response to a solo performance in Antwerp, Klassiek Centraal België wrote: “It wasn't the raw power of youth behind the piano needing to be tamed, but rather a mature pianist... It had everything: the 'zeitgeist' of the music, its vibrancy, and the virtuosity of both the composition as well as the composer.”
Between 2011 and 2018, Carter was a student at the Sweelinck Academy, the national academy for young talent of the Conservatory of Amsterdam, first with Marjes Benoist until April 2016 and subsequently with Nino Gvetadze. In addition he was admitted to the International Piano Academy 'Incontri col Maestro' in Imola, Italy in the summer of 2017, where he studied with Igor Roma. In September 2018, Carter started his Bachelor's degree at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste with Prof. Till Fellner, with whom he continued working during his Master's degree with a specialization in Solo Performance, finishing in June 2023. In fall 2023, Carter started a Master's degree with a specialization in New Music with Prof. Nicolas Hodges at the HMDK Stuttgart. Before he moved to the Netherlands he was a student of the renowned Dr. Peter Mack, Professor of Piano Performance at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. In 2015 he also joined a conducting program at the Nederlandse Junior Dirigeer Academie with Taco Kooistra and for two years he followed lessons at the Imola Piano Academy Eindhoven. Besides that, he took up a minor in composition, studying with Mathias Steinauer at the ZHdK until his retirement in 2021. Recently, he started a minor in cembalo, expanding his horizons to historical performance. Carter has received master classes from various maestri throughout Europe and the United States.
In 2010 Carter won second prize at the International Bach Festival and the Russian Composer Festival in Seattle. In 2012 he was awarded first prize at the Young Musician of the Year competition of the Royal Concertgebouw. In early 2013 he won second prize at the Princess Christina Concours Junior, a national competition for young musical talents. In 2013 and 2015 he made it to the semifinals of his age bracket at the Young Pianist Foundation’s International Piano Competition in Amsterdam, and in 2019 he was a prize winner in his age category, receiving a scholarship as well as the Bach and Mozart Prizes. In November 2016 he won the title Classic Young Master during the "Meesterproef" in De Doelen. The prize includes two years of professional career development coaching provided by the Classic Young Masters Foundation. Most recently, he received First Prize at the 2022 Landolt Competition.