DAVID HIGGS
Program Biography
One of
America’s leading concert
organists, David Higgs is Chair of the Organ Department at the Eastman School
of Music. He has inaugurated many important new instruments including St.
Stephan’s Cathedral, Vienna; the Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas; and the Church of St. Ignatius
Loyola in New York City. His performances
with ensembles have included the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center,
Chanticleer, the Orpheus Ensemble, and the Empire Brass. In 1987, he made his
debut with the San Francisco Symphony, and for twelve years played annual
Christmas recitals to capacity audiences at San Francisco’s Davies Symphony
Hall.
Mr.
Higgs appears frequently at major national and international organ festivals.
Recent engagements have included the International Organ Festivals of Calgary, Naples, Redlands, San Anselmo, the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, and
the Summer Organ Academies of the Interlochen School for the Arts and
Mt. Royal College-Conservatory in Calgary. In England, he has appeared
several times at the Oundle International Festival,
the St. Albans International Festival, and the Cambridge Summer Festival.
A
native of New York City, Mr. Higgs earned
the Bachelor and Master of Music degrees at the Manhattan School of Music, and
a Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music. His teachers have
included Claire Coci, Peter Hurford, Russell
Saunders, and Frederick Swann.
A
sought-after teacher, Mr. Higgs is a frequent lecturer and master-teacher for
conferences, workshops, and festivals on both sides of the Atlantic. He was appointed
to the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music upon graduation from that
institution, and was later the Director of Church Music Studies at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in
Berkeley. He was appointed
to the faculty of the Eastman School of Music in 1992, and since that time his
students have won major competitions and hold many of the top positions in the United States.
Mr.
Higgs has recorded for Delos International, Pro Organo,
and Gothic records.
Rev.
July 2006