Question: Chris Carson has performed works by which composer of 9 symphonies?
Context: blue cathedral is an orchestral composition by the American composer Jennifer Higdon.  The work was commissioned by the Curtis Institute of Music in 1999 to commemorate the conservatory's 75th anniversary.  It was first performed in 2000 by the Curtis Institute of Music Symphony Orchestra.  The piece is dedicated to the memory of Higdon's brother and is one of the composer's most performed works. The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op.  125, is the final complete symphony composed from 1822 to 1824 by the German composer Ludwig van Beethoven.  It was first performed in Vienna on 7 May 1824.  The symphony is one of the best-known works in common practice music.  It is widely viewed by critics as one of Beethoven's greatest works, the pinnacle of musical Classicism, and one of the greatest compositions in the western musical canon.  The symphony was the first example of a major composer using voices in a symphony (thus making it a choral symphony).  The words are sung during the final movement by four vocal soloists and a chorus.  They were taken from the "Ode to Joy", a poem written by Friedrich Schiller in 1785 and revised in 1803, with text additions made by the composer.  In the 2010s, it stands as one of the most performed symphonies in the world. The War Symphonies: Shostakovich Against Stalin (sometimes titled Shostakovich Against Stalin: The War Symphonies) is a 1997 documentary film about Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich.  It focuses on the period between 1936 and 1945, during which Shostakovich composed his Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Symphonies, but also briefly discusses other works in the composer's oeuvre, such as his "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. Vasily Sergeyevich Kalinnikov (Russian: Васи́лий Серге́евич Кали́нников ; January 13 [O.S. January 1] 1866 .  Oryol GovernorateJanuary 11, 1901 , Yalta) was a Russian composer of two symphonies, several additional orchestral works and numerous songs, all of them imbued with characteristics of folksong.  His symphonies, particularly the First, were frequently performed in the early 20th century. Chris Carson (born August 21, 1985) is an American pianist and composer native to San Antonio, Texas.  Growing up in Houston, Texas, he attended High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and studied with Timothy Hester, a Juilliard graduate.  Other teachers have included Abbey Simon, Ludmilla Lifson, and Victor Rosenbaum.  Mr. Carson has been a very successful competitor, capturing many awards and top ratings in competitions throughout his career.  He recently was the inaugural winner of the Pacifica Quartet Competition, and, in 2009, performed the Brahms piano quintet with the Grammy-award winning group.  He has received first prize in numerous concerto competitions, and has appeared as a soloist with three orchestras over the past few years, most recently with Orchesterakademie in Germany in 2009, performing a repertoire of Beethoven, Liszt, Shostakovich, and Mendelssohn.  Mr. Carson's performances have taken him to New York, Dallas, Chicago, Boston, Houston, Montreal and overseas to venues in Italy, France, and Germany.  An active composer, Carson premiered his Fantasy for Piano in Italy in 2006 and is very involved in composing both sacred and secular music.  Mr. Carson is also an active teacher in the Boston area, coaching both pianists and vocalists.  He currently resides in Boston, where he attended Longy School of Music for his master's degree.  He is now a music director, teacher, and freelancer, in addition to being the choral accompanist for the Belmont Public Schools, in Belmont, Massachusetts. Sequoia is an orchestral composition by the American composer Joan Tower.  The work was commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra with support from the Jerome Foundation.  It was first performed on May 18, 1981 in Alice Tully Hall by the American Composers Orchestra under the conductor Dennis Russell Davies.  The piece is dedicated to the concertmistress and first horn player of the orchestra, Jean and Paul Ingraham, respectively.  "Sequoia" was Tower's first major orchestral composition and remains one of the composer's most performed works. Arvo Pärt (] ; born 11 September 1935) is an Estonian composer of classical and religious music.  Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs his self-invented compositional technique, tintinnabuli.  Pärt's music is in part inspired by Gregorian chant.  His most performed works include "Fratres" (1977), "Spiegel im Spiegel" (1978), and "Für Alina" (1976).  Pärt has been the most performed living composer in the world for five consecutive years. Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (18 November 1836 – 29 May 1911) was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for the fourteen comic operas (known as the Savoy operas) produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan.  The most famous of these include "H.M.S. Pinafore", "The Pirates of Penzance" and one of the most frequently performed works in the history of musical theatre, "The Mikado".  The popularity of these works was supported for over a century by year-round performances of them, in Britain and abroad, by the repertory company that they founded, the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.  Eleven of the Savoy operas continue to be frequently performed in the English-speaking world and beyond by opera companies, repertory companies, schools and community theatre groups.  Lines from these works have become part of the English language, such as "short, sharp shock", "What, never?  Well, hardly ever!" , and "Let the punishment fit the crime". The compositional career of the British composer Michael Tippett extended over eight decades, from juvenilia and unpublished works written in the 1920s to his final works of the 1990s.  He composed across many genres, from large-scale orchestral works and full-length operas to solo songs and brass band fanfares.  From the mid-1930s his music began to be published and performed publicly.  The main list is restricted to published and publicly performed works; a subsidiary list gives details of unpublished pieces, some of which may have been privately performed. Ludwig van Beethoven ( , ; ] ; baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist.  A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential of all composers.  His best-known compositions include 9 symphonies, 5 piano concertos, 1 violin concerto, 32 piano sonatas, 16 string quartets, his great Mass the "Missa solemnis", and one opera, "Fidelio".
Answer: Ludwig van Beethoven