The 2023 Dr. Lawrence P. Schreiber Organ Recital features Jan Kraybill on Sunday, November 12 at 4:00 pm.
The recital is entitled, “A Community of Voices.” Dr. Kraybill writes: “Each of the pipes in an organ can speak at only one pitch, one volume, and one tone color. Differences in pipes’ sizes, shapes, and materials create varied sounds—each one is unique. By definition, then, a pipe organ is a community of voices. This program is designed to celebrate the rich variety of voices in this Austin pipe organ.” Musical selections are from well-known composers such as Bach, Gounod, Sibelius, and Widor as well as contemporary composers: Gunnar Idenstam, Mary Beth Bennett, Geoffrey Wilcken and Ralph Simpson.
Dr. Jan Kraybill is a musical leader, dynamic speaker, performer, educator, organ consultant, and enthusiastic advocate for the power of music to change lives for the better. In addition to maintaining a very active concert schedule, in the Kansas City metro area she is Organ Conservator at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, Organist-in-Residence at Community of Christ headquarters, and organist at Village on Antioch Presbyterian Church.
The recital is free and open to the public. A reception will follow in Fellowship Hall.
Throughout her career Jan has performed as both a solo and collaborative musician, taught workshops on a variety of topics, and inspired audiences and congregations. While in high school in Colby, Kansas, she was invited to play her first European piano recital in Andover, England. Since then she has performed in many venues in North America and Europe, as well as in Australia, Russia, South Korea, and Tahiti. In 2015, she designed and led a hymn festival at the International Gathering of Hymn Societies at Cambridge University.
She has been a featured artist and presenter at regional and national conventions of the American Guild of Organists (AGO), the Hymn Society in the U.S. and Canada, the American Choral Directors Association, and other musicians’ organizations, and on American Public Media’s Pipedreams and other broadcasts. Several solo and collaborative recordings are available, including her Grammy-nominated album The Orchestral Organ, released by Reference Recordings in 2019 and nominated as Best Classical Instrumental Solo and in two other categories in 2020. Her most recent solo disc is Marked for Grace, released by Naxos in 2021.
Dr. Kraybill has degrees in music education and piano and organ performance. She attained the AGO’s Fellow certificate, organists’ highest certification level, in 2010. She has served in local, regional, and national roles in the AGO and other non-profit organizations. Her extra-musical interests include lacemaking, painting, and riding her Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
The recital is free and open to the public. A reception will follow in Fellowship Hall.
