Carolina Eyck

Carolina Eyck (born 26 December 1987) is a German-Sorb musician and composer who specialises in playing the theremin.

She is one of the world's foremost theremin virtuosi, and her performances around the world have helped to promote the instrument.

She developed a precise new playing technique and wrote the first comprehensive theremin tutor book.

Eyck was born in 1987, near Berlin, Germany.

She is a member of the Sorbian community of East Germany.

Eyck began learning piano aged five and violin aged six.

She began studying the theremin aged seven at a school for musically gifted children in Berlin.

Eyck made her musical debut with the Berlin Philharmonic in 2002, and was subsequently invited to the Bohuslav Martinu International Music Festival in Basel, the Davos Festival (Switzerland), the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Großes Festspielhaus Salzburg (Austria), the Teatro Nacional Lisbon (Portugal) and the Palace of Arts Budapest.

She has performed concerts in Poland, the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Sweden, Finland, Great Britain, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Japan, Mexico, Chile, Portugal, Hungary, Pakistan, Turkey and the United States.

During her concert tours, Eyck has collaborated with other musicians and orchestras, including Heinz Holliger, Robert Kolinsky, Gerhard Oppitz, Andrey Boreyko, Michael Sanderling, Gürer Aykal, John Storgårds, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Bern Symphony Orchestra, the Essen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Brandenburg State Orchestra, the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra, the Lapland Chamber Orchestra, the Heidelberg Symphonic Orchestra and the Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg.

She was a guest musician in the Hamburg Ballet performance of "The Little Mermaid" by Lera Auerbach in Japan and San Francisco.

In 2006, Eyck published the first extensive theremin method book, entitled "The Art of Playing the Theremin".

It explained that, to play the instrument, a musician makes specific hand and finger positions in the air around the instrument without touching it.

She was the winner of the International Competition for Composers, presented by Radio/TV Berlin-Brandenburg in 2006.

She has conducted workshops, lectures and Masterclasses in Germany, Sweden, Poland, Great Britain, the United States of America, Mexico and Japan.

Eyck was winner of the 2006 International Competition for Composers, organised by Radio/TV Berlin-Brandenburg.

Since 2010, she has been the artistic director of the Theremin Summer Academy in Colmar, France, and has conducted workshops, lectures and master classes worldwide.

In 2010, Eyck received a Bachelor of Music degree in viola from the Royal College of Music, Stockholm, Sweden.

In 2012, Eyck played the theremin solo at the world premiere of the two symphonies "Mesopotamia" and "Universe" by Fazıl Say.

Finnish composer Kalevi Aho dedicated a theremin concerto to Carolina, which she performed for the first time in October 2012.

(Conducted by John Storgårds and played with the Lapland Chamber Orchestra: BIS records 2014.)

In 2015, she received the German Echo Klassik in the category "Concert Recording of the Year (20th/21st century music)" for playing the Theremin Concerto "Eight Seasons" by Kalevi Aho.

In 2015, she received the German Echo Klassik in the category "Concert Recording of the Year (20th/21st century music)" for playing the Theremin Concerto "Eight Seasons" by Kalevi Aho, conducted by John Storgårds and played with the Lapland Chamber Orchestra, published in 2014 by BIS records.

The theremin concerto "Dancefloor With Pulsing" by the French composer Regis Campo was written for her and premiered with the Brussels Philharmonic in 2018.

On 14 August 2020, Eyck appeared on the BBC Radio 3 programme In Tune to talk about the theremin.

She performed an excerpt from her tribute piece Friend, and a complete version of the Doctor Who theme, which was recorded on video.