Free Brown Bag Concert: Jan Kraybill’s Sounds of the Season on Organ

Kraybill, a musical leader, performer, educator, and organ consultant will play the sounds of the season from diverse generations and geography.

The free (donations accepted) Brown Bag Concerts, sponsored by Westport Center for the Arts, connect musicians with local audiences in an intimate space. They are held monthly from 12:10 to 1 p.m. at the Westport Presbyterian Church, 201 Westport Road, Kansas City.

As Organ Conservator at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City, and Organist-in-Residence at the international headquarters of Community of Christ in Independence, Missouri, Kraybill plays and oversees the care of three of the Kansas City metro area’s largest pipe organs.

While in high school in Colby, Kansas, Kraybill was invited to play her first European piano recital in Andover, England.  Since then she has performed as a soloist, collaborative artist, and hymn festival designer/leader in many venues in the U.S. and in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Poland, Russia, South Korea, Tahiti, The Netherlands, and The United Kingdom.  She has appeared on regional and national conventions of the American Guild of Organists (AGO), the Hymn Society, and other musicians’ organizations; and on American Public Media’s Pipedreamsand other broadcasts.  She enjoys collaborative music-making as well, and has appeared often with ensembles ranging from symphonies to chamber groups.  Her CDs include Organ Polychrome, the first solo recording of the Julia Irene Kauffman Casavant, produced by Reference Recordings in 2014.  A disc containing Saint-Saëns’ Third (“Organ”) Symphony with the Kansas City Symphony was nominated for a Grammy in 2015.  Her second solo CD from The Kauffman Center is scheduled for release this year.

In addition to her degrees in music education, piano performance, and organ performance, in 2010 Jan earned the Fellow certificate from the AGO, the highest professional certification for organists.  She has served in local, regional, and national roles in many non-profit musical and other organizations, most recently as Executive Director of The Hymn Society in the U.S. and Canada.

Financial assistance for this project has been provided by the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency, and the Arts KC-Regional Arts Council.