James Higdon

James Higdon is the Dane and Polly Bales Professor of Organ at the University of Kansas. He earned a bachelor of music degree in organ from St. Olaf College, a master of music degree from Northwestern University and a doctor of musical arts degree from the Eastman School of Music. He has studied with Edmund Ladouceur, Robert Kendall, Karel Paukert, David Craighead and Catharine Crozier. He has also studied in France with Marie-Claire Alain.

Higdon's recordings include: Dupre: A Centennial Tribute (Pro Organo), recorded at St. Paul's Anglican Church, Toronto, Canada; Organ Music of France and Camille Saint Saëns (Arkay), both recorded on the 1879 Cavaillé-Coll organ at St.- François-de-Sales, Lyon, France; and Jehan Alain: Complete Works for Organ (RBW). He is also featured on two recordings with the renowned Kansas City Chorale - "Nativitas" and "Alleluia: An American Hymnal," recorded on the Nimbus label. Released in 1997 was "Music from Bales Organ Recital Hall" (DCD Records), the inaugural recording of the new Hellmuth Wolff organ in the Bales Organ Recital Hall at the University of Kansas.

His European concert tours (1992, 1994, 1997, and 1998) have included recitals at Notre Dame Cathedral and La Madeleine in Paris, France; Northern Germany; recitals at the Frederick Chopin Academy in Warsaw and master classes for organ students from conservatories throughout Poland; recitals in Czechoslovakia. Recent American recitals include appearances at three regional conventions of The American Guild of Organists, and premieres of three commissioned works for organ by American Composers: Epistrophe: A Sonata in Four Movements for Organ - Samuel Adler, 1992; Three Temperaments - Stephen Paulus, 1996; Trelugue, Peccatas and Feuds - Music for a Reverberant Space - James Mobberley, 1997.

The University of Kansas presented Higdon with a W.T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence at the beginning of the 1997-1998 academic year. He was the first University of Kansas professor from the arts to be recognized with this prestigious award. He has had six students win Fulbright Awards during his tenure at the University of Kansas, including an undergraduate student who won a Fulbright-Hays award for study in Germany during the 1999-2000 academic year.