Biography of Jan-Piet Knijff
Jan-Piet Knijff [pronounced Yahn-Pete K’nife, or simply JP] holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The Graduate Center of The 
City University of New York as well as the Artist Diploma from the Conservatory of Amsterdam. Born in Haarlem, The Netherlands—home of the world-famous Christiaan Müller organ at St. Bavo’s Cathedral—he won both the first prize and the Audience Prize at the International Bach Competition in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1997, and moved to the tri-state area in 1999.
In addition to his position as Organist and Music Director of Union Temple of Brooklyn, Dr. Knijff is currently Organist-in-Residence at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College/CUNY, where he teaches organ and chamber music; Director of Music at Emanuel Lutheran Church, Pleasantville, NY, where he conducts two choirs and works with amateur as well as professional orchestras; and Concert Organist in Residence at St. Paul’s Church National Historic Site, Mount Vernon, NY (Henry Erben organ, 1835). He also performs frequently as continuo organist and harpsichordist with the Bach Choir and Players at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Manhattan.
Dr. Knijff has performed worldwide on organ, piano, and harpsichord as recitalist, accompanist, chamber music player, and concerto soloist. He played the harpsichord solo in the world premiere of Alfred Schnittke’s Concerto grosso No. 4/Fifth Symphony with the Amsterdam Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and accompanied the Haarlem Cathedral Choir (boys and men) on an extended tour in Japan. He played second harpsichord to Glen Wilson in a commercial recording of Bach’s Fourteen Canons (Teldec). He has performed organ concertos by Hindemith, Poulenc, Monnikendam, and de Klerk; harpsichord concertos by Bach and de Falla; and piano concertos by Mozart and Lancen with professional and semi-professional orchestras.
Dr. Knijff has contributed articles to journals such as Het Orgel, The Tracker, The Diapason, and Pianowereld. Before coming to America, he was for many years a music journalist for Haarlems Dagblad, the world’s oldest extant newspaper. He has served as an adjudicator for the International Young Organists’ Competion in Opava, Czech Republic, 2002. As a bass-baritone, he has performed principal roles in Gilbert & Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore, Patience, and Iolanthe, as well as solo parts in a musical theater production celebrating the music of Irving Berlin and in opera scenes from Mozart and Thomas.
Dr. Knijff makes his home in South Salem, NY with his wife Brigitte Pohl-Knijff, a licensed acupuncturist and teacher of therapeutic arts.
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