Discipline: Music Composition

James Niblock

Discipline: Music Composition
Region: East Lansing, MI
MacDowell Fellowships: 1960
James Niblock (1917-2018) was an American composer. From 1948 until 1985 he was a faculty member of the College of Music at Michigan State University where he taught theory and composition, performed in the Beaumont String Quartet, and served as Chairman of the College of Music for 15 years, during which time he also was concertmaster of the Lansing Symphony Orchestra. Niblock has written more than 150 major compositions of which 100 have been published and are frequently performed. Since his retirement from the University, he continued to compose, conduct, and perform — especially during the summer sessions of the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Muskegon County, Michigan.

Studios

Sprague-Smith

James Niblock worked in the Sprague-Smith studio.

In January of 1976, the original Sprague-Smith Studio — built in 1915–1916 and funded by music students of Mrs. Charles Sprague-Smith of the Veltin School — was destroyed by fire. Redesigned by William Gnade, Sr., a Peterborough builder, the fieldstone structure was rebuilt the same year from the foundation up, reusing the original fieldstone. A few…

Learn more