UPDATE: A memorial service will be held Monday (Oct. 10) at The United Presbyterian Church of Binghamton, 42 Chenango St., Binghamton. Musical tributes will begin at 12:15 p.m. and the Service of Witness to the Resurrection and Celebration of the Life of Jonathan Biggers will begin at 1p.m.
Binghamton University Music Department Chairman James Burns notified music faculty members today (Sept. 27) that longtime faculty member Jonathan Biggers had passed away suddenly. “We only learned of his death this afternoon, and details are still coming in,” Burns wrote to his colleagues.
Biggers, 56, associate professor and Edwin Link Endowed Professor in Organ and Harpsichord at Binghamton University, was hailed as “one of the most outstanding concert organists in the United States.” He maintained an active career as both a professor of organ and harpsichord and as a concert organist of the first order.
Biggers earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music from the University of Alabama, and his PhD in musical arts from the University of Rochester. He first came to Binghamton as a visiting professor in 1992 and became associate professor in 2002.
A prize winner of dozens of competitions, he was notably awarded a unanimous first prize in the 1985 Geneva International Competition, one of the most prestigious music competitions for organ in the world; second prize in the 1982 American Guild of Organists National Organ Playing Competition; and a unanimous first prize in the 1990 Calgary International Organ Festival Concerto Competition.
— Barb Van Atta
