Carsten Paap studied church music, school music and music education at the University of Music Lübeck, majoring in organ, trombone and choral conducting, and graduated with distinction. He encountered the musical in 1997 at CATS in the Hamburg Operettenhaus, from where he continued in 1999 in Bremen with JEKYLL& HYDE as keyboardist and assistant musical director. In the same position he changed to MOZART! in Hamburg, where TITANIC - DAS MUSICAL and DIRTY DANCING followed. At the same time he conducted SONGS FOR A NEW WORLD on the Cap San Diego as well as ELEGIES FOR ANGELS, PUNKS AND RAGING QUEENS at the Schmidt Theater Hamburg and conducted the Berlin production of TANZ DER VAMPIRE. His work in Vienna includes REBECCA, MUSICAL CHRISTMAS, JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, SISTER ACT, THE VISIT OF THE OLD LADY, MOZART!, MARY POPPINS, EVITA, DON CAMILLO & PEPPONE, I AM FROM AUSTRIA, BODYGUARD - THE MUSICAL, MISS SAIGON and THE LADY OF NOTRE DAME as well as musical direction for DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES and CATS. He was also Musical Director for the musical productions ANNIE (2012) and INTO THE WOODS(2014), which were created in collaboration with the Lower Austrian Music School Management. In May 2013 he was responsible for the premiere of the chamber opera JOIN! by Franz Koglmann at the Wiener Festwochen, and in September 2017 for the premiere of LIEBE SOPHIE and the EA of Anna Clyne's THIS MIDNIGHT HOUR (Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra).