Biography
Willem Ibes was born in Nijimegen, The
Netherlands, in 1930, and started his piano
studies at the age of twelve. He attended
Canisius College in his home city. After
completing his studies there, he received a
scholarship at St. John's University,
Collegeville, Minnesota.
After one year in the United States, Mr. Ibes
returned to Europe and continued his
professional training at the Amsterdam
Conservatory with Willem Andriessen, director of
the institution. He fulfilled the
requirements for the regular six-year course in
half that time and graduated with two degrees,
one for solo piano performance.
Willem Ibes spent the next three years in Paris
as a student of Marguérite Long, internationally
renowned in the musical world for her
interpretations of Debussy and Ravel. Upon
his return to The Netherlands, he added to his
musical studies a full-time course in psychology
and philosophy at Nijmegen University. In
1957 he was invited to return to St. John's
University as professor of piano, music history,
form analysis and piano literature
A frequent performer in solo recitals and as
soloist here and abroad, Ibes made his Carnegie
Hall and Kennedy Center debuts in 1990.
Commenting on that debut in Washington, D.C.,
Joseph McLellan of the Washington Post wrote he
"could not help wondering why his arrival has
been delayed so long." On the occasion of
his repeat performances on the East Coast the
Washington Post welcomed Ibes back as "an artist
of the highest quality."
Willem Ibes has performed many of the piano
concertos in the standard concerto repertoire
with the St. Paul Chamber, Minneapolis Civic and
Philadelphia Festival Orchestras, the Pueblo
Symphony, the Manhattan Virtuosi as well as with
orchestras in Europe and Asia. Besides
concertizing in Europe he has, since 1990,
almost yearly returned to the Far East for
teaching and performing in Japan and mainland
China. In addition to concerts and master
classes in Beijing and Northern China he was in
the summer of 2005 the honored invited soloist
with the Guangxi Symphony Orchestra for
the fifty-year celebration of the School of
Music of Guangxi Arts College in Nanning.
In November of 2008 Willem Ibes celebrated the
60th anniversary of his professional debut (as
soloist in Grieg's piano concerto with the St.
John's Symphony Orchestra in 1948) in a Gala
concert, together with former students and
friends, highlighting his discoveries in
Beethoven's piano sonata Opus 101 and concluding
as soloist in Beethoven's fourth piano concerto
with the Northland Symphony Orchestra. During St. John's' January term he has often
led groups of students in Zen study and
meditation. Mr. Ibes earned a degree in
philosophy from St. John's University and holds
the equivalent of the Doctorate in Musical Arts.
