Jack Gibbons

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jack Gibbons (born 1962) is an English classical pianist and composer. He performs music from a wide repertoire, but has especially championed the music of Frédéric Chopin, Charles-Valentin Alkan and George Gershwin. Jack Gibbons has established a remarkable reputation as not only one of the finest pianists of his generation, but also one of the world’s greatest interpreters of the piano music of George Gershwin, whose original recorded improvisations he has meticulously reconstructed note-for-note and performed throughout the world. He regularly performs at New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, and at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, where he has appeared annually for the last 16 years. In 2002 he won special praise for having fought his way back from a near-fatal car accident to perform once again to a capacity crowd at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the British press describing his achievement as “miraculous” and “gutsy”, and the BBC hailing him as “THE Gershwin pianist of our time”.

Jack Gibbons began performing in public at the age of 10. He made his London debut in 1979, at the age of 17, with an all-Alkan concert that included Alkan's legendary Concerto for solo piano in the programme. At 20 he won First Prize in the Newport International Pianoforte Competition, his performance of Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto being described by the jury as "masterly". He gave his Queen Elizabeth Hall debut in 1984 playing Bach's Goldberg Variations, Chopin's Funeral March Sonata and Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit, on which occasion the London Times described him as "Britain's answer to Ivo Pogorelich". After several years away from the music world Gibbons returned to the London concert stage in 1990, giving the first of what became for the next 16 years annual all-Gershwin programs to a packed Queen Elizabeth Hall. A year later he was invited to New York to meet members of Gershwin's family, including Gershwin's sister Frances Godowsky. In 1994 he made his US debut with recitals in New York and Washington DC, and is now a frequent visitor to New York. For the BBC Gibbons wrote and presented a special feature on George Gershwin for the Gershwin Centennial in 1998, with Academy Award winning actor Sir Ben Kingsley providing the voice of George Gershwin.

Gibbons also spends increasing amounts of time on composition when not performing. After childhood successes as a composer Jack returned to composing after a gap of 25 years, during his convalescence from his life threatening car accident in 2001. He has since had his music performed at Carnegie Hall in New York, the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, and on the BBC. Gibbons’ music to date includes over 40 songs and choral works (mostly for soprano voice), 20 solo piano works, and two works for string orchestra.

Jack Gibbons' recording credits include a Gramophone Award nomination, MRA awards, and numerous special commendations by CD magazines, newspapers, etc. His award-winning "Authentic Gershwin" series of 4 CDs on ASV has been described in the media as "a unique testimony to Gershwin's genius". Jack Gibbons has also recorded a highly acclaimed two-CD set of Alkan's gargantuan Op.39 Études (the first ever CD recording of this remarkable work), described by Gramophone as “among the most exhilarating feats of pianism I’ve heard on disc”. In January 1995, in Oxford, England, Jack Gibbons created musical history by becoming the first performer to present in a single concert Alkan's entire Twelve Studies in the Minor Keys Opus 39 (the set includes two of Alkan's most famous works, the Symphony for Solo Piano and the Concerto for Solo Piano). Gibbons repeated the concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London a year later, the London Times raving over the event: "Awe-inspiring… not only does he possess both the stamina and a technique prodigious enough to master everything the music requires, but he scrupulously respects Alkan’s own insistence on clarity, precision and control in this most hugely romantic of music." In March 2007 Gibbons gave the first ever performance at Carnegie Hall of Alkan's Concerto for Solo Piano, first published in Paris in 1857.

In 1983 Jack Gibbons had a dream of founding a music agency in the UK to help aspiring young classical musicians and held discussions about it with potential sponsors W.H. Smith. W.H. Smith took up the idea and a few months later Gibbons' dream became reality with the founding of the Young Concert Artists Trust, sponsored by W.H. Smith. Jack's idea of the Young Concert Artists Trust (or YCAT as it has become known in the UK) was to establish an agency for young talented musicians that would provide a more permanent start to their careers than 'flash-in-the-pan' competition wins. YCAT is still going strong in the UK today, more than 20 years after it was begun and has successfully launched the careers of many internationally celebrated classical musicians including Joanna MacGregor and Charles Hazlewood.