Dr. Jan Kraybill, DMA, FAGO

GRAMMY-nominated artist Jan Kraybill is a concert organist, pianist, and harpsichordist; a dynamic speaker, educator, church musician, and consultant; and an enthusiastic cheerleader for the power of music to change lives for the better.

In addition to maintaining a very active concert schedule, Dr. Kraybill is organ conservator at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City, Missouri, USA; organist-in-residence at the international headquarters of Community of Christ in Independence, Missouri; and organist at Village on Antioch Presbyterian Church in Overland Park, Kansas. In these roles she plays and oversees the care of three of the Kansas City metro area's largest pipe organs: the 113-rank Aeolian-Skinner (1959) and 102-rank Casavant (1993) at Community of Christ's Auditorium and Temple, and the Kauffman Center's 102-rank Julia Irene Kauffman Casavant (2012).

Throughout her career Jan has performed as both a solo and collaborative musician, designed and led international hymn festivals, taught workshops on a variety of topics, and inspired audiences and congregations. While in high school in Colby, Kansas, Jan was invited to play her first European piano recital in Andover, England. She has performed in many venues in North America and Europe, and in Australia, Russia, South Korea, and Tahiti. Her multiple tours of the United Kingdom have included organ concerts at the grand cathedrals of Chester, Exeter, and St. Paul’s in London. In 2015 she designed and led a hymn festival at the International Gathering of Hymn Societies at Cambridge University. 

Jan has been a featured artist and teacher at regional and national conventions of the American Guild of Organists (AGO), the American Choral Directors Association, the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, and other musicians’ organizations, and has been heard on many broadcasts of American Public Media’s national program Pipedreams. She has collaborated with many ensembles, including the Bach Aria Soloists, the Phoenix Chorale, Kantorei Denver, the GRAMMY-winning Kansas City Chorale, the GRAMMY-nominated Kansas City Symphony and Symphony Chorus, and others. 

Several solo CDs and collaborative recordings are available. Jan's first solo CD, Two by 2: Two Organ Symphonies on Two Magnificent Organs, features both of Community of Christ’s pipe organs. Rejoice and Remember contains hymn arrangements for piano. The Auditorium Organ: Fifty Years of Excellence celebrated that organ’s 50th anniversary in 2009. Solo CDs of the Julia Irene Kauffman Casavant were released by Reference Recordings in 2014 and 2019: Organ Polychrome features music by French composers, and The Orchestral Organ is a disc of transcriptions. Her most recent album, Marked for Grace, was produced by ProOrgano and released in June 2021 by Naxos.

Jan has recorded for Reference Recordings with the Kansas City Symphony on several occasions. Their disc containing Saint-Saëns' “Organ” Symphony was nominated for a GRAMMY in 2015.  Her second solo album with Reference, The Orchestral Organ, received three nominations for GRAMMY awards in 2020, including Best Classical Instrumental Solo. 

Dr. Kraybill's degrees in music education and piano and organ performance were earned at Kansas State University and the Conservatory of Music and Dance in Kansas City. In 2010 she achieved the distinction of Fellow of the AGO, the highest certification level available for organists. She has served in many local, regional, and national roles in the AGO, The Hymn Society, and the Master Teacher Institute, most recently as Executive Director of The Hymn Society in the U.S. and Canada. She is a member of Mensa. Her extra-musical interests include antiquing, lace making, and riding her Harley-Davidson motorcycle. 

Explore www.jankraybill.com for more information and Jan’s concert schedule.

Photo credit: Roy Inman