Paul Kirby
Paul H. Kirby serves as organist at Zion-St. Mark's Lutheran Church in New York City, and as a board member of the Musicians Club of New York. He spent many years conducting school, community, and youth orchestras and bands and has composed extensively for educational ensembles. His Dies Irae for Symphony Orchestra was premiered at the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp (Michigan) on August 4, 2013, under the direction of James W. Roach. His Heavy Dance for String Orchestra has been performed by several ensembles, and can be viewed on YouTube, conducted by Andrea Profili.
His Songs without Words for Clarinet and Piano was commissioned and
performed by Bixby Kennedy, and premiered on January 19, 2020. This and other works are available at https://www.musiciansclubofny.org/members/paulkirby.
He also has a strong background and interest in musical theater. He collaborated with Dean Kostos on the book and lyrics and wrote the music for The Boy Who Listened to Paintings, a musical play based on Mr. Kostos's memoir of the same title, which received a Zoom reading by Theater for the New City in April, 2021, available on YouTube. He conducted a staged reading of The Night of the Secretary-General, an opera for tenor and small orchestra, on texts of Dag Hammarskjöld, on 10/21&22/2017.
Dr. Kirby holds degrees in music from the University of Michigan, Michigan
State University, Rice University, and City University of New York (Doctor of Musical Arts) with additional study at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria.
Kirby has served as music director and conductor of the Dearborn Summer
Symphony, Lakeview High School Orchestra, Battle Creek Chamber Orchestra, Houston Youth Symphony and Ballet, Bryan / College Station
Chamber Orchestra, Community Singers of Brazos Valley, Pasadena
Philharmonic, Central Iowa Symphony, and Iowa State University
Symphony.
Articles by Dr. Kirby have been published by The Instrumentalist, the Conductors' Guild Journal, and others.