Kolja Joseph Gibbs, born 1999, is a German/Australian classical guitarist who began his career in London in 2015 and has been active as a performer, arranger and teacher ever since. He is recipient of prizes for his activities as a soloist and chamber musician, most notably his first prize at the Carne Trust Chamber Competition 2022 and 2nd prize in the romantic guitar category of the 2024 International Paganini Competition in Parma, Italy. 

Under the tutelage of Graham Anthony Devine he completed a Bachelor of Music in Performance with first degree honours at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in 2022. He went on to study a Master of Music in the distinguished class of Prof. Carlo Marchione at the Conservatorium Maastricht, which he completed in 2024.

Noted for a musical maturity beyond his age and his fine use of colours and articulation, his performances have reached audiences in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Malta. His wide repertoire includes music by established composers like Johann Sebastian Bach, Fernando Sor, Francisco Tarréga and Robert Schumann, but also lesser known works by Diabelli, Bernard Piris, Georg Schmitz or Simon Molitor. He dedicates much of his time to the repertoire of the romantic guitar and his performance of the Op.7 Sonata by Simon Molitor has earned him much praise at the 2024 International Paganini Competition. 

He has ongoing projects with his guitar duo Dodekacorda, his guitar/violin duo Duo Hafdar and his cello/guitar duo with Jakob Arndt. He teaches at the Musikakademie am Dom and the Musikatelier in Aachen, as well as Musikschule Colonia in Cologne. 

He plays a 2006 classical guitar by Casimiro Lozano, as well as a 1910 copy of a Johann Anton Stauffer romantic guitar, restored by Felix Reuter in 2016.