Instructor in Ensemble and Cittern
Hailing from the Skåne region in southern Sweden, Ale Carr was raised in a family of folk musicians, performing with the family band his whole life. This created a strong foundation for his musicianship in that music had always been about interaction and connection with friends and family as well as the exciting and meaningful link between the artist and the listener.
Growing up, he developed an arsenal of instruments including violin, guitar, drums, piano, double-bass, mandolin - until finally as a 14 year old he got his hands on a cittern which today has become his signature instrument. Self-taught on the cittern until he began his formal studies at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm, Ale has been inspired and learnt much from the musical pioneers like Ale Möller, Roger Tallroth and Olle Lindvall. Today, Ale is recognised as one of the leading players of plucked string instruments within the nordic music tradition.
Also a prominent fiddler, Ale became a Riksspelman at the age of 19. In 2017 he became the world champion of clog-fiddle, a traditional instrument from Skåne.
Since 2015 Ale is the artistic director of Folkrot, a festival which celebrates the traditional music from Skåne.
In his early teenage years, Ale determined to challenge and seek to develop the traditional music that he loved. This led him to composing and to broaden his musical spectrum, leading to many new exciting collaborations. Influenced by his father’s Danish heritage, Ale found his way into Denmark’s folk music scene and together with Nikolaj Busk and Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen founded the band Dreamers’ Circus in 2009, as well as joining the Danish band Basco in 2010.
Other collaborations includes duos with Esko Järvelä and Bjarke Falgren, and through his various projects he has performed his music with symphony orchestras, big bands, choirs and chamber ensembles like the Danish String Quartet. Ale now performs on stages all over the world as diverse as Sydney Opera House, Roskilde Festival, Washington Performing Arts and Hayao Miyazaki’s personal atelier in Japan. He has been awarded 10 Danish Music Awards, including Artist of the Year and Composer of the Year.
Ale particularly enjoys teaching - as he believes the essence of tradition is based on the sharing experiences and one’s cultural inheritance. Ale has wide experience in delivering workshops and music classes at festivals and concerts internationally, and has been teaching at the Malmö Academy of Music since 2011, as well as being a guest teacher at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo and the Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg among others.
At the Malmö Academy of Music, Ale is primarily teaching different plucked string instruments within the Nordic traditions, but also teach ensemble playing, music theory from a Nordic traditional perspective and other various projects, masterclasses and seminars.