Dear Mr. Chappell:

I have read your resume and official biography. Can you provide a slightly more personal version of your musical life in chronological order?

— Reader

Dear Reader:

I am the first professional musician in my family, unless you count my grandmother, who was the organist at my grandfather’s church. Both of my parents were aeronautical engineers, but my mother played Chopin and my father played boogie-woogie. What happened then was that I spent the first 30 years of my life totally focused on one thing — classical music. That was the Chopin side. Afterwards, I added jazz to my pursuits. That was the boogie-woogie side. But I also started reaching in all directions. Improvisation, composition, teaching, journalism, and musical theater have all figured strongly since that time.

My first great teacher was Jane Allen, who took me as a student when I was 13 years old. She told me that I would have to work, and so I did. By the time I was 15, I had the technical ability to play the most advanced pieces in the repertoire. Then my family moved away from St. Louis, so, at Jane Allen’s invitation, I left home at the age of 15 to stay behind in Missouri as her protégé and to study for two more years. I was then accepted to the Curtis Institute of Music in 1970 as the student of Eleanor Sokoloff, with additional lessons from Rudolf Serkin. I loved every minute of my four years there. I finished by winning the Philadelphia Orchestra Concerto Competition and by spending the summer of 1974 at the Marlboro Music Festival.

I then continued my studies at the Peabody Conservatory with Leon Fleisher, finishing a Master’s Degree in 1976. While at Peabody, I came to the attention of Sergiu Comissiona, who was then the conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. During Comissiona’s term, I was invited to perform with the BSO throughout the state of Maryland several times a year, as well as at Carnegie Hall and Wolf Trap Park. On one occasion, I was called to substitute for Claudio Arrau, performing the Brahms Second Concerto on four hours’ notice with no rehearsal and to critical acclaim. During this period, I also was engaged to perform with other major orchestras such as those of Pittsburgh, Houston, Indianapolis, and St. Louis. Many of my concerts were broadcast on national radio. I toured Latin America and appeared at the La Gesse Festival and the Festival d’Ete in France. I also received a Solo Recitalists Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

When I diversified my activities and started playing jazz, I eventually became the Director of Jazz Studies at Goucher College in Baltimore and co-chairman of the Jazz Department at the Levine School in Washington, D.C. I also became composer-in-residence for the Mid-Atlantic Chamber Orchestra. I gave concerts with the Lenox Ensemble, an improvisation group of classical musicians in Washington, D.C. I started writing articles and reviews as a contributing editor for Piano&Keyboard Magazine. I attended the BMI Musical Theater Workshop in New York for four years, learning to write for musical theater. At various times, I have been active as a chamber musician, orchestral pianist, silent film improviser, voice coach, recording artist, television soundtrack musician, theory teacher, ballet accompanist (Nureyev and Fonteyn), proofreader, adjudicator, and lecturer. I still continue to perform concertos by Mozart, Brahms, and Rachmaninoff nonetheless. I love teaching, and I can teach people how to do any of the things I have listed.

If I have a specialty, it is French piano music. To be fair, I must say that Ravel is my favorite composer and that it is Faure’s music that I am in love with.

— JC