Biography of James Kibbie

Germany:
“James Kibbie plays with consummate clarity, brilliance and grandeur.  His technically perfect performance reveals the compositional structure and an intuitive emotional penetration of the music.”--Ars Organi

France:
“He unfolded a torrential virtuosity, revealed in a storm of light.”--Le Monde

Czechoslovakia:
“Kibbie displayed flawless, brilliant technique, unfailing memory, and outstanding musicianship.”--Hudebni rozhledy

England:
“Music does communicate, and never more so than when it is played with the impulse and eloquence Dr. Kibbie commands.”--Musical Times

USA:
“Kibbie's performances are persuasive. His registrations are colorful and effective, he roars through the most complex passages with dazzling facility, and he articulates the rhythmic excitement of the music with a wonderful flexibility and clarity.”--American Record Guide

James Kibbie is Professor of Organ at the University of Michigan.  He also maintains a full schedule of concert, recording, and festival engagements throughout North America and Europe, including appearances at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, Royal Festival Hall in London, Dvorak Hall in Prague, and Lincoln Center in New York.  During his month-long concert tour of the Soviet Union in 1991, Pravda hailed him as “a marvelous organist, a brilliant interpreter.”  A frequent jury member of international organ competitions, he has himself been awarded the Grand Prix d'Interprétation at the prestigious International Organ Competition of Chartres, France, and is also the only American to have won the International Organ Competition of the Prague Spring Festival in Czechoslovakia.

James Kibbie's performances have been broadcast on radio and television in the USA, Canada, and Europe.  His compact disc recordings include “Merrily on Hill” recorded on the famed Skinner organ in Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, the complete Clavierübung III by J. S. Bach recorded on the Létourneau organs of the Cathedral of St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, works of Dieterich Buxtehude performed on the historic 1687 Schnitger organ of Norden, Germany, and discs of music by Alain, Tournemire, Sowande, Morrison, and 20th-century Czech composers.  Dr. Kibbie’s “audio holiday cards,” recorded on the Létourneau organ in his residence and issued as free internet downloads, are a popular annual tradition.

James Kibbie is widely regarded as an authority on the organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach.  He has performed all the extant organ compositions of Bach in a series of eighteen recitals, and frequently presents Bach recitals, workshops and masterclasses.  Dr. Kibbie is currently engaged in a three-year project to record the complete Bach organ works on historic 18th-century German organs.  Thanks to generous support from Dr. Barbara Furin Sloat in honor of J. Barry Sloat, the University of Michigan is offering these recordings as free internet downloads on the Block M Records website: www.blockmrecords.org/bach.

James Kibbie’s students perform frequently in concerts, competitions and workshops in the USA and abroad.  His former students hold key positions in college teaching and church music nationally.  Among the honors he has received, Dr. Kibbie is particularly proud of the James Kibbie Scholarship, endowed in perpetuity by the University of Michigan to support students majoring in organ performance and church music.