John Gibson

John Gibson
(b. 1951)

'"Real art is one of the most powerful forces in the rise of mankind." (Kodály)

"By you; by those deceptive cadences
Where with the common measure is refined;
by conscious art practised with natural ease;
By the delicate, invisible web you wove –
The inexplicable mystery of sound."
(T. S. Eliot)
'
John Gibson
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John Gibson was born in Dublin and began piano lessons with his mother at the age of five. Further studies were at the Dublin College of Music, the Royal Irish Academy of Music, where he studied composition with Dr A. J. Potter, the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Munich and with Prof. Valentyna Schubinskaya in Moscow. In 2006 he was awarded a first class honours MA in Composition from the Cork School of Music.

He has performed extensively as concerto soloist, recitalist, accompanist and chamber musician, and has worked with Karlheinz Stockhausen and Witold Lustoslawski. During 2003, he travelled on Swan Hellenic cruises in the Baltic region where he gave piano recitals which included some of his recent compositions. He is currently a lecturer in piano in composition at the CIT Cork School of Music.

John Gibson's music has been performed in Ireland, England, America, Germany, France, Poland, Romania, Israel, Japan, Russia, Brazil and China. Awards include the Dublin Arts Festival Prize for String Quartet No. 2; second prize in the 1975 Ó Riada Competition at the Cork International Choral Festival; and the Nijinsky Medal, awarded by the Polish Ministry of Arts in 1997 for the piano piece ‘Nijinsky’ (1980). To date, five CDs of his music have been released. Recent releases include a compilation album, ‘The John Gibson Collection’, and a disc of his chamber opera, ‘Judith and Holofernes’ (2000-01).

2006 commissions include ‘Moladh go Deo le Dia’ for the Dublin AXA International Piano Competition and ‘Ikon’ for the RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet at the West Cork Chamber Music Festival.

(biography © Contemporary Music Centre, Ireland)
Composer web site: www.johncgibson.com

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