About the Artist
Harry Appelman has performed on concert stages on five continents. He has been chosen three times to participate in U.S. State Department music tours over seas -- to South and Central America, Eastern Europe, Turkey andCyprus, and South Asia. He has performed in Egypt with the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra and the Todd Marcus Quartet, and has performed at the Festival Gnaouas et Musiques du Monde in Essaouira, Morocco and the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. Mr. Appelman is amember of Afro Bop Alliance, winners of a 2008 Latin Grammy, and has toured the United States and Canada with the Woody Herman Orchestra and the Artie Shaw Orchestra. A recipient of a 2012 Maryland State Arts Council Award for composition, he was a finalist in both the 1987 and 1988 Thelonious Monk lnternational Jazz Piano Competitions (finishing second in 1988) and one of three prize winners in the 1989 Great American Jazz Piano Competition. Appelman has performed in small groups led by Conrad Henruig, Eddie Daniels, Gary Thomas, George Garzone, Jerry Bergonzi, Jim Snidero, Drew Gress, Brian Lynch, Don Braden, and Walt Weiskopf, among others. Long-term musical collaborators include such non-Western musicians as Afghani vocals Uharmonium virtuoso Humayun Khan and tabla player Broto Roy. Mr. Appelman was named in Washingtonian magazine's February 2003 "Great Music" issue as one of the D.C. area's best jazz artists. He currently performs in the area at Blues Alley, the Millenium Stage at theKennedy Center, Wolf Trap, Twins, and other popular jazz venues.
Appelman leads the latin jazz group Duende Quartet, and has played frequently with Palmetto recording artists Rumba Club. He has performed in concert with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Darren Atwater, and the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra with guest soloist Branford Marsalis. He hasalso resided and performed in Boston and New York City -- where he played with numerous creative and respected groups, ranging from trumpeter Scott Wendholt's quartet to vocalist Dakota Staton's trio.
A native of the Chicago area, Appelman began his classical music training in the first grade, later turning to the fusion and rock idioms and ultimately to jazz. After graduating with a B.A. in Economics from the University of lllinois -- where he was honored as a Phi Beta Kappa and Summa Cum Laude -- he went on to earn a Master of Music degree with Distinction from the New England Conservatory. His post-graduate music studies have included work with Jim McNeely, Fred Hersch, Stanley Cowell, Tom McKinley, Sophia Rosoff and other brilliant pianist-teachers.
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