Jan Kraybill

Jan Kraybill is Principal Organist and Director of Music at Community of Christ (formerly RLDS) International Headquarters in Independence, Missouri. She performs regularly on the famous 113-rank Aeolian-Skinner (1959) Auditorium Organ and the Temple’s magnificent 103-rank Casavant organ (1993), and oversees a staff of about thirty volunteer organists who, for fifty consecutive summers, have presented daily recitals on these two instruments. She plans and provides music for worship services, coordinates a concert series, designs and conducts international hymn festivals, teaches workshops, and serves as a resource person for church musicians and worship planners. Her degrees are Bachelor of Music Education and Master of Music (piano performance) from Kansas State University, and the Doctor of Musical Arts (organ performance) from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music.

Dr. Kraybill performs as both a pianist and organist throughout the United States and abroad. While a junior in high school in Colby, Kansas, she presented her first European piano recital in Andover, England. Since then she has performed in many venues in the United States as well as Canada, Germany, Poland, South Korea, Russia, and Tahiti, and has undertaken multiple tours of the United Kingdom, including performances at Chester Cathedral, Exeter Cathedral, and London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral. She has appeared on regional and national musicians’ conventions, including the American Guild of Organists (AGO), the American Choral Directors’ Association, the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, and the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, and has been featured frequently on Kansas Public Radio. She has performed as harpsichordist and organist with the acclaimed Baroque group the Bach Aria Soloists, the Kansas City Symphony and the Grammy-winning Kansas City Chorale. Her solo CDs are Two by 2: Two Organ Symphonies on Two Magnificent Organs, recorded at Community of Christ’s Auditorium and Temple organs and released December 2004; Rejoice and Remember: Piano Music for All Seasons, piano arrangements of favorite hymns, released December 2005; and The Auditorium Organ: Fifty Years of Excellence, released during the 50^th anniversary celebration of the installation of the Community of Christ Auditorium’s organ, in November 2009.

Outside the Community of Christ, Dr. Kraybill provides musical leadership and guest ministry in many styles of worship in a wide variety of denominations, and is very active as a masterclass and workshop clinician, hymn festival director, and organ consultant. She also teaches workshops on personal creativity. She has served in volunteer leadership in many elected offices in the American Guild of Organists, and is currently Regional Councillor for AGO Region VI, representing ten states on the National Council. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Master Teacher Institute and is a member of Mensa. Her extra-musical interests include antiquing, lace making, and riding her Harley-Davidson with her husband, Allan.