KINGSTON, R.I. – Oct. 18, 2023 – Geoffrey Gibbs retired as a professor of music composition and theory at the University of Rhode Island more than 20 years ago. But his muse has never retired.
The prolific composer continues to write music in all forms and to present concerts of his compositions every year—except during the pandemic. It’s a tradition he started when he first joined the URI faculty in 1965.
Gibbs’ music and poetry will again grace the stage Sunday, Oct. 29, at 7 p.m. in the Fine Arts Center Concert Hall, 105 Upper College Road, Kingston. The Canonchet Concert celebrates the 300th anniversary of the town of South Kingstown and also pays tribute to the area’s deep Indigenous roots as well as his own. The concert is free and open to all.
“The inspiration for this concert came from [retired URI] professor Richard Vangermeersch, who has been particularly interested in the history of the Narragansett indigenous nation,” says Gibbs. “But it is also special to me because of my Native American ancestors who fought against my Dutch and English early colonist ancestors. It means that I bridge both sides. What is so remarkable is that I know the names and stories of a few of my Native American ancestors and their lives are very gripping, both tragic and inspiring.”
The highlight of the concert may be several scenes from Gibbs’ opera “Canonchet,” which is based on Vangermeersch’s research and tells the story of the killing of Canonchet, the 17th-century sachem of the Narragansetts. During King Philip’s War, the Narragansetts retreated from their village to a fort in the Great Swamp, where they were massacred by Colonial troops in 1675. Canonchet was killed a year later.
“I hope the full opera will be premiered in 2025—so at 83 years of age, I must keep myself in shape,” Gibbs says.
The concert will also feature two collections of songs based on Gibbs’ poetry, including “Silcock’s Mohawk Songs,” which will feature eight works “fancifully attributed” to the Mohawk maiden, he writes in the concert program.
Silcock, who lived during the American Revolution, is Gibbs’ great-great-great grandmother. She lived a remarkable life, he said. A medicine woman and midwife, her remedies were used by generations of his family. The songs in the concert tell of how she rowed the length of the Hudson River hoping to find her English soldier lover. “When she found he had returned to England, she made a life for herself in New York City,” he says.
Gibbs said his early ancestors came from Holland and England to America in the 1600s and settled in the areas of New York City and Long Island. They kept slaves and “did terrible things” to Indigenous peoples. But his ancestors also included Native Americans and people like his great-grandfather who fought on the Union side in the Civil War to end slavery.
“What it means is that, as an American, I have to accept both the good and the bad of my family history,” he said. “I embrace it all, understanding that the flow of time led to a better country, and may it continue to do so.”
Like Vangermeersch ’64, an accounting professor who retired in 2004 after 34 years at URI, Gibbs also had a long tenure. He taught for 36 years at URI, designing numerous music courses, creating the Master of Music program, and starting the Sona Aronian and Geoffrey Gibbs Scholarship in Composition.
He started composing when he was 7. At age 16, he was accepted into the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, going on to earn all three degrees the program offered.
Over the years, he has written hundreds of works—symphonies, concertos, operas, tone poems, choral works, electronic music, chamber music and songs—with numerous compositions being performed throughout New England, the U.S., and in Russia and South America.
“I have no idea as to how many pieces altogether,” he says.
The concert will feature vocalists Yohji Daquio, soprano; Ethan Bremneer, tenor; and retired URI professor Rene de la Garza, baritone; along with musicians Alexey Shabalin on violin, Ceili O’Connor on guitar, and Philip Martorella on piano.