James Gibson Arts

                               About the Arts, From an Artist, To All Artists        For a year and a half a lot of thoughts about the arts world and about our place in it have continued to swirl in my thinking........some of the worst things than can happen to a large society, indeed the world society, have happened.......huge numbers of people have succumbed, and most everyone has experienced frustration, sadness, impatience, fear, boredom and perplexity about how to move forward.      We artists are kind of in a special category because no matter what our job is, we have the honor and the responsibility of talking to the world about the world and its people. The arts are, in many ways, the most exalted form of exploration and discovery on earth. So it strikes me that as we begin crawling out of the pandemic and toward what we hope will soon be a return to 'normal' life, ...

     The previous blog here talks about finding ourselves behind masks, at a distance from others, and seeking kindness where it may be needed more than ever. The capsule announcement which follows demonstrates how we can go beyond the pandemic, beyond the frustration and depression that each of us feels. It begins to lay out a plan for taking music and the other arts, and our resources, and our good will, to people even more desperate than we are.      Our activities in the arts are going to be directly aimed over the next few years at reaching out to everyone in need. We are proud to announce a few initial choices of recipient organizations who will benefit from everything that we can do to share the arts, to provide funds and help and encouragement. These are St. Jude's Children's Hospital, American Behcet's Disease Association, Child Fund International, UNICEF, and the Red Cross. This list will grow as we move into 2021.  Our colleagues at AcquaTro...

    One thing a person learns when reaching some level of recognition in the arts is that people are often curious about who you are, what is behind the art, what your life is like. Most of that curiosity is not threatening, and actually quite flattering. At the same time, people who have been in the spotlight a long time will advise you that privacy, and even personal security, can become more difficult to maintain as your popularity increases. So over the years, I have learned to find a good balance between privacy and my public profile.      Recently my performance and production group has taken on a number of new artists who will be working with us. This is quite stimulating; of necessity, it has led me to be speaking out, talking about myself, and reflecting on my own experiences, much more than I was doing a year or two ago. The special challenge of opening up to new people like this is that I have to do it online, or through a mask which covers half my ...

Hello everyone, In the Judeo-Christian world, this is Holy Week and Passover. For everyone in the world, regardless of where their faith lies, this is also an important time in the pandemic which is affecting us all. Not only is it essential that we all  maintain physical distancing and follow all the guidelines for a healthy environment. It is also important that we listen carefully to the medical experts. We must not let our eagerness to return to normal override our common sense. The crisis will not be over magically at the end of April or even May. Yes, there is reason to hope we will enjoy many aspects of a 'normal' summer. But this crisis and its list of victims are not going to diminish any time soon. I urge all of you to find wherever your faith, hope, and capacity to survive   might be found. Use that faith to take your mind to positive places. Please keep working.....we artists can all continue to practice, learn, memorize, plan, and to communicate with others. O...

The following are responses to questions which have been asked of James Gibson in recent months, by a number of different interviewers, fans and friends. Comments are welcomed at jamesgibsonallarts@gmail.com. ?      Do you have a favorite period in history?...especially as it relates to music. JG:  I love history! I go in and out, sometimes obsessing with it for weeks, at other times barely paying attention to it. I watch a lot of history docs on tv. Not long ago I started a pattern of studying one century in history for an entire year. I started with the beginning of the Christian -- and 'Common' -- Era, because I figured it would be too time-consuming to find enough references about pre-Christian history, fascinating as that would be. So in 2019 I studied the first century A.D. Now I am in the second century. As you can imagine, the beginnings of Christianity and the Roman Empire dominate a lot of that time period. I am largely concentrating on Europe and North...

I seem to have a fascination with ironies and contradictions in the arts. Unlike some composers who thrive on creating dissonance and chaos and mashing things together, I prefer simpler and more gentle statements, on the whole. There can be a lot of loud power and anguish in my music, but I think and hope that the calm and soothing voices generally win out. I love pondering the seeming contradiction of peace, of utter serenity, emerging from an overwhelming gathering of hundreds of voices singing with passion. This is what I experienced recently at a rehearsal of Eric Whitacre's music, conducted by him and featuring Joanna Burrell, soprano soloist. Because she is a friend and colleague, and as I know how beautiful her singing is, I was not surprised that in the gentle simplicity of Goodnight, Moon  she warmly lifted the power of this beautiful music to a hall full of people. So we were all riding high a bit later when 800 voices filled that hall with more music, gripping and exci...

    When those of us in the arts experience tremendous highs of beauty and accomplishment and joy and inspiration -- which can happen often -- we frequently seize the moment. We shout, dance, call our friends, listen to a powerful song over and over....we go out for a celebration, we treat ourselves to something special, we announce it to the world. Today, though, I had an interesting experience. I am coming off of several days of tremendous inspiration and bliss in music and performance...not because of anything I have done, but because of stunning experiences with the music of others. You will read about some of that in the coming days on www.acquatroupe.com.     Oddly enough, and almost uniquely, I found myself withdrawing today into a glorious and silent web of reflection. Fresh inspiration from several performers whose brilliance really struck me this week...a quiet sense of how beautiful and strong humanity can be...memory of special experiences many years pa...

I love it when a little bit of visual magic crosses my line of vision....recently I watched a building float upward and then suddenly dart off to one side, as it was reflected in a window of the vehicle in which I was riding, and we made a sharp turn. If you take selfies, you can become aware of all kinds of cool reflections. Random magic for me is also two long vapor trails which cross in the sky......listening to music but not really paying attention because I am working on something, and then suddenly I get to the part where the music swells and a favorite combination of tones blares its way outward....or seeing a person start dancing spontaneously on the sidewalk.......wondering where the closest place for mundane-but-ok food is, then suddenly passing a restaurant which features one's very favorite dish....... reading something when the TV suddenly gives you the music which perfectly fits the passage you just read. When that happens we ask ourselves whether it is instinct or co...

Following are excerpts from numerous interviews which have taken place over the past few years. All the interviewers are labeled '?' . ?        Who is your favorite composer? Aside from yourself, that is. (Laughter) JG      I'm not sure how often I make it onto my list of favorites! It is a difficult question to answer      because it can change from day to day, and there never is a clear number one favorite. I think I would always have to include Palestrina, Mozart, Beethoven, Rossini, Chopin, Schumann, Dvorak, Debussy, Janacek, Sibelius, Messiaen...and many others. Plus songwriters who are, after all, composers....Brian Wilson, Gordon Lightfoot, Tish Hinojosa, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Stephen Schwartz, John Lennnon, Bob Dylan and so many others. ?         When was the last time you shed a tear while listening to music? JG       The last time I watched Les Miserables  on tv. ?    ...

I have two memorable performances. One is at my first Pink Floyd concert. The other was when James opened the piano during a concert and played music on the hardware on the inside of  the piano. --Kathy M. Cyr

                      My Piano Saga....and a new CD     Becoming an artist and maintaining an artistic career is not for the fainthearted or the weak...that is the first advice I would give to anyone who wants to become a performer or creative artist. I have met many artists who survived unbelievable trials and obstacles in order to live out their passions and dreams. I am not sure if I have met even one who had a lifetime of ease and who accomplished their goals without hardship. When I began piano lessons at age eight, I already considered myself to be a composer and I knew I wanted music to be my career. As the years went by I realized, with increasing clarity, that skimping on practice sessions or expecting everything to happen automatically was not in the cards. As an adult I took devious pleasure in reading that Artur Rubinstein hated to practice. Somehow it felt like a validation of my own pantheon of excuses for ...

              As I have previously announced, AcquaTroupe is up and running and is emerging as one of the more interesting and diversified performing groups of today. I hope you have visited, or will soon visit their website (www.acquatroupe.com). Inevitably, any artists who are launching a performing enterprise will think a lot about great performances by others which stand out in their minds. We have been doing a lot of this thinking; recently I asked half a dozen friends to each tell me one outstanding performance -- in the arts, sports, or other public arenas -- that really inspired them recently. Here are the results, in no particular order:                        ***U-2 onstage in California last summer                        ***Alicia Vikander in "Jason Bourne" movie               ...

                                 ACQUATROUPE      A new website for AcquaTroupe is now online and I invite you to visit! Go to acquatroupe.com and read about all the things this amazing new consortium is beginning to share with the world. I say 'amazing' with humility since I am AT's artistic director; but truly it is the efforts of other people who are making this possible.     Briefly, AcquaTroupe breaks down boundaries and walls in order to bring great music and other arts to deserving audiences. Multiple arts, innovative approaches and unseasoned audiences in far corners are the bread and butter of this new artistic venture. The troupe is currently seeking all sorts of artists, supporters and people with ideas and something to share. We look forward to connecting with you. As a composer, pianist, singer and writer, I have to say objectively that AcquaTroupe is the kind o...

     When one passes middle age and realizes that most of his or her life's work is not really preserved anywhere, one thinks about ways to immortalize all that effort so that others can enjoy its fruits in the future. Reaching that point, I was in the throes of helping create AcquaTroupe. This ensemble of gifted performing and creative artists has a shifting personnel roster, a willingness to break down barriers, and a thirst for new art to blend with the magic of the old and familiar.      AcquaTroupe has launched a series of compact disc recordings which will be assertively distributed throughout the world. I was honored that the first recording chosen for this series was a CD of some of my own solo compositions, Living Piano Music. This is now officially release number one in the AcquaTroupe series. It is available from World Oceans Arts. We are excited to announce the next five recordings in the series. One is already in production; the others will f...

                                  SING THE MESSAGES FROM YOUR SOUL      I find myself in that odd place where we all occasionally pause--because we can express our deep feelings in music, but sometimes find it difficult or impossible to express them in spoken words. Listening to Judy Collins and the exquisite beauty of her singing, I feel the chills.....I clearly remember events of a decade and a half century ago....I recall vividly how those of us in the 60's, who were tormented and torn between love and anger, between war and peace, between hope and despair....how we nestled in the refuge of music like a bear cub, wrapped in the safety of its warm winter den.      As we approach the half-century anniversary of the end of the 1960s, we find our world and our nation deeply immersed in conflict, confusion, polarities, extremes of beauty and ugliness. I believe we need mu...

Welcome to my website! I am excited about this opportunity to share my music, my thoughts and my thirst for constant learning and renewal. One of the best parts of being an artist is the abundance of connections with amazing people, made possible when one is in the creative and performing arts. I hope my site will help bring some of those special people together as we celebrate the beauty and magic of music. The arts are a fundamental source of bonding and mutual understanding in today's world. Every day I am thankful that I can take pieces of the music that is always in my head, and add them to the ever-growing store of artistic expression that is spread across the world. No one becomes an artist or contributes their artistic expression to that worldwide magical archive without the influence and guidance of other artists. I learned from many teachers and professors who helped me at every turn. You will hear more about these wonderful people in later blogs. For now, please bear w...

Welcome to the blog for James Gibson Arts! Stay tuned here for updates on James Gibson's music career as well as his other careers in the arts. Alisa Erkes Webmaster