Gerard Gibbs, Guest Lecturer, grew up on the East Side of Detroit in a working-class family shaped by migration and discovery—his mother a first-generation Italian immigrant, his father adopted at birth, later revealed to be of German heritage. His path to music was entirely his own. With no musicians in the family, everything changed the day he heard Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 on the radio and knew, instantly, that the oboe was his instrument. A natural aptitude for German led to a full scholarship as a year-long exchange student in Germany, a formative experience that would echo throughout his musical life.
Returning home, Gerard studied oboe at Wayne State University with Donald Baker, Principal Oboist of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and a student of the legendary Marcel Tabuteau. Deeply conscious of lineage—a central value in classical training—Gerard takes pride in tracing his musical ancestry to the great French oboists of the 19th century, fitting for an instrument born in France. His curiosity soon expanded to historical performance, and he became an early adopter of the Early Music movement, performing on modern, Baroque, and Classical oboes as well as recorders with leading ensembles across North America, including the Waverly Consort, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Los Angeles Baroque Orchestra, and numerous symphony orchestras in the U.S. and Canada.
Parallel to his performing career, Gerard built a substantial presence in arts leadership, working with orchestral management and historic theaters. From 2002 to 2010, he directed Alberta’s Empress Theatre and co-founded the Fort Macleod International Festival with Rivka Golani. He later worked in London with Sir John Eliot Gardiner to strengthen the American Friends of the Grammy Award–winning Monteverdi Choir. Back in the United States, Gerard held leadership and teaching roles with the Akron Symphony Orchestra, Utah Tech University, and New Spire Arts in Frederick, Maryland. He now serves as Executive Director of the Flickinger Center for the Performing Arts, where he brings together a lifetime of musical lineage, performance, and leadership to shape a bold new artistic vision.
