E. Power Biggs

E. Power Biggs rose to prominence in classical circles through an expansive repertoire and an extraordinary volume of recorded work. Although he played a central role in rekindling appreciation for Bach and other Baroque organ composers, his curiosity extended across centuries, embracing composers from Giovanni Gabrieli to Scott Joplin.

Born Edward George Power Biggs on 29 March 1906 in Westcliff-on-Sea, England, he initially pursued electrical engineering before turning to the organ. He studied at London’s Royal Academy of Music under G.D. Cunningham. The economic collapse of the late 1920s prompted him to sail for the United States in 1929, where he arrived nearly penniless and earned a living accompanying a Welsh singer. By 1932 he had secured the post of organist at Christ Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a city that remained his home for the rest of his life; he became an American citizen five years later.

At Harvard’s Busch-Reisinger Museum he performed on a newly installed Baroque-style Aeolian-Skinner instrument, an experience that sparked his lifelong exploration of historic organs and their literature and established him as an early advocate of historically informed performance. Between 1942 and 1958 he presented a weekly CBS radio recital. A 1954 European tour gave him firsthand knowledge of period instruments that helped spark a renewed American interest in Baroque organ design. During the 1940s and early 1950s he committed numerous performances to 78-rpm discs for Victor and Mercury.

His association with Columbia Records began in 1962 with the release of Music for Organ and Orchestra, an album that paired him with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic as well as Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. The partnership continued until his death. By the late 1960s Biggs ranked among the most celebrated classical artists, and several of his recordings crossed into the popular market. His principal rival, Virgil Fox, recorded for RCA and Capitol and occasionally dismissed Biggs’s approach as overly academic. Nevertheless, Biggs himself ventured into crossover territory with projects such as E. Power Biggs Plays Scott Joplin on the Pedal Harpsichord and Stars and Stripes: Two Centuries of Heroic Music in America. He made repeated trips to Europe to record on historic instruments and commissioned new works from Roy Harris, Walter Piston, and others.

Arthritis slowed his playing during the 1970s, yet he continued editing organ music and teaching at Cambridge’s Longy School of Music. He died in that city on 10 March 1977. More than fifty of his LP recordings have since been reissued in digital formats, and he is honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.