Artist Spotlight: Tedde Gibson

Rodgers proudly presents Tedde Gibson as our Artist Spotlight for our series of “65 Stories Celebrating 65 Years.” He has appeared in concerts, video recordings, and worship services playing various Rodgers organs.

Tedde was the featured artist at the 2022 Rodgers Instruments worldwide dealer meeting, where he inaugurated their new Infinity 367 organ. Tedde has recorded several videos on this beautiful organ; the videos can be viewed on the Rodgers Organ YouTube channel.

Tedde Gibson is one of a few talented musicians able to play classical, theatre, jazz, and gospel on the organ and piano. He integrates these styles into his theatre and classical pipe organ playing, the ultimate vehicle to showcase his talents. 

A native of Tacoma, Washington, Tedde began playing piano at age four. He later studied pipe organ with the late Dr. Edward Hansen, president of the American Guild of Organists and organ professor at the University of Puget Sound (Washington). He also studied piano and voice at UPS. He has studied classical improvisation with David Dahl, organist emeritus of Pacific Lutheran University and Christ Episcopal Church of Tacoma, Washington, and Dr. J. Melvin Butler and Dr. Carol Terry of the University of Washington. Tedde has coached with international theatre organist Jonas Nordwall of Portland, Oregon, and the late Andy Crow of Olympia, Washington. He was an organist at First Assembly of God/Life Center in Tacoma and First AME Church in Seattle.

Tedde cut his theatre organ teeth as an organist at Pizza and Pipes in Tacoma, Washington, for five years until that restaurant's untimely demise due to fire in 1999. He played many concerts and silent films on the premier instruments of the area, including the 4-manual, 48-rank Wurlitzer in Harbor Manor, Gig Harbor; the Paramount Theatre, Seattle, and the Mt. Baker Theatre in Bellingham.

Upon moving to the Metropolitan DC area in November 2003, he studied classical organ with international organist Dr. Mickey Thomas Terry, editor of the 9+ volume anthology of organ works by African American composers. Tedde was an organ performance major at The Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, in the organ studio of Dr. John Walker. In addition, Tedde has studied film scoring with Emmy-Award-winning film composer Adam Lukas, who works with legendary film composer Hans Zimmer at Bleeding Fingers Music in Los Angeles. 

Tedde has recorded and accompanied several gospel and jazz artists, including Twinkie Clark, Jennifer Holiday, Melba Moore, Edmonia Jarrett, the late Shawn McLemore, and Dorinda Clark-Sheard. 

Tedde is the Director of Fine Arts at Mount Pleasant Church and Ministries in Baltimore, and organist at Capitol Hill Seventh-Day Adventist Church. Tedde was an organist/musician-in-residence at the First Baptist Church of Highland Park in Landover, Maryland, and taught general music and performing arts at Highland Park Christian Academy for over 18 years. 

He is a featured artist at the Seattle Paramount Theatre, performing on their annual "Silent Movie Mondays" series on their original Publix 1 Wurlitzer pipe organ. In addition to performing for many chapters of the American Theatre Organ Society, Tedde has performed on both the Wurlitzer and Grand Court Organ at Wanamakers/Macys in Philadelphia, recorded on the world's largest pipe organ in Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, NJ; the Hardman Estate, the Sanfilippo Estate, Dickinson High School, and numerous theatres, schools, and performance venues across the country. Tedde has produced two recordings on the Hardman Studio Wurlitzer: At Last and Let There Be Praise Volume I. He is finishing Let There Be Praise Volume II and a classical and theatre organ-styled recording on the Hardman Studio Wurlitzer.

Tedde is the chairman of the board of directors for the American Theatre Organ Society (ATOS), a non-profit organization charged with preserving the theatre organ, its history, and its performance practices and educating new audiences about this uniquely American instrument. He is also the first African American to hold this position in the organization's 60+ year history. 

Tedde recently became house organist at the Weinberg Center For The Arts in Frederick, Maryland.

For more information about Tedde, his website is http://www.teddegibson.com