James Gibson Arts

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...