Online Early Music Master Class with Andrew Appel

Andrew Appel
Andrew Appel at the Harpsichord, photo by David Rodgers

On February 12, 2022 ACMP presented an online Early Music Masterclass with harpsichordist and conductor Andrew Appel of the Four Nations Ensemble. Two adult amateur groups from ACMP’s community in New Jersey and California (USA) played trio sonata movements by Händel, and an undergraduate Historical Performance group from the San Francisco Conservatory offered the first movement of Haydn’s String Quartet in F minor, Op. 20, no. 5. About 70 people were in the audience on Zoom, and others watched the livestream on Facebook.

Watch this video of the class to hear Andrew Appel’s period performance insights on these three musical masterpieces:

Andrew Appel on Händel and Haydn

About Andrew Appel, harpsichord & fortepiano:

Andrew Appel, Artistic Director of the Four Nations Ensemble, performs throughout Europe and the United States as soloist in many festivals including Italy’s Spoleto Festival, New York’s Mostly Mozart Festival, and the Redwoods Festival. As recitalist, Mr. Appel has performed at Carnegie and Avery Fisher Halls in New York, as well as halls from the Music Academy of the West to the Smithsonian in Washington DC. Besides his work with The Four Nations Ensemble, he has been a guest of Chatham Baroque, the Smithsonian Players, and Orpheus. He serves as harpsichordist for Opera Lafayette and has toured with several European chamber orchestras. He has enjoyed critical acclaim for his solo recording of Bach works with Bridge Records as well as his fortepiano performances of Haydn for ASV. He presently records for ASV and Smithsonian recordings.

As an educator, Appel has been called upon to create significant programs in arts education for elementary school students and professional development for teachers. Appel created a program linking the Amarillo Symphony to the public schools in that city, “Music makes the Difference.” In Chatham, New York, Appel organized festivals of culture and history for third through sixth graders while instituting “salon discussions” between the teachers of Chatham and art curators, dance historians, musicologists, and arts journalists. Both programs have made significant additions to the lives of participating school communities. With Four Nations and funding from Chamber Music America, Appel has designed and run residencies in communities around the country with kindergarten through college students, most recently in St. Cloud, MN.

As a writer, Mr. Appel has written program notes and articles for presenters around the country including Lincoln Center, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, and National Public Radio. Mr. Appel has participated in discussions on education and chamber music programming at conferences of Chamber Music America, the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, and the New York State Council on the Arts. He currently serves as President of the Board of Trustees of Chamber Music America. He has been regularly praised for pre-concert talks that contextualize the music and open areas of discovery for the audience.

A native of New York City, Appel discovered the harpsichord at 14 and began lessons with Tim Read and Igor Kipnis. First-prize winner of the Erwin Bodkey Competition in Boston, he holds an international soloist degree from the Royal Conservatory in Antwerp where he worked with Kenneth Gilbert and a Doctorate from the Juilliard School under Albert Fuller. There he has taught harpsichord and music history. Appel has also taught harpsichord, chamber music, music history and humanities courses at Moravian College, Princeton University, and New York Polytech, now a division of NYU.

More Articles

Calvin Wiersma class on Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time”: Sunday, April 7, 3pm ET

ACMP is proud to present a special live (and live-streamed) class with violinist and chamber music coach extraordinaire Calvin Wiersma on Olivier Messiaen's seminal work, the "Quartet for the End of Time," with ACMP member musicians Kenneth Margolis (clarinet), Yolanda Wu (violin), Ben Pfeifer (cello) and Walter Kennon (piano.)

Read More ↗

An orchestra that lives up to the ideals of the United Nations

Ever since the United Nations was founded nearly 80 years ago, it has stood for nothing less than “peace, justice, and better living for all humankind.” When it comes to living up to those ideals, nowhere does that happen more than every Wednesday night in a nondescript office across from UN headquarters.

Read More ↗

Meet Joel Epstein: violinist, violist, writer, arranger, educator and ACMP member since the 1970s

Violinist, violist, writer, arranger and educator Joel Epstein has been a member of ACMP since the 1970s. Get to know Joel and read about his book "Music for the Love of It: Episodes in Amateur Music-Making" and about his important work teaching music to status-less children in Israel.

Read More ↗

Meet ACMP Pianist and Educator James Daly

You may have been wondering about the people featured in the mockups for ACMP's new Timbre app-in-progress. AI was not involved in any way - all of those people are real members of ACMP with profiles in our Directory of Chamber Musicians. California-based pianist and educator James Daly is the man in the header image for the blog article about Timbre. Read all about his path to becoming a musician and educator and enjoy a 20% ACMP member discount on his original T-shirts and other merchandise.

Read More ↗

Timbre Reveal: a sneak peak at ACMP’s new app-in-progress

Take a sneak peek at “Timbre” - ACMP's first ever app, in its early stages of development. Timbre will be a fun, visual, and more immediate way to find other ACMP members while you’re casually scrolling on your phone.

Read More ↗

A conversation with filmmaker Hilan Warshaw

In the lead-up to the ACMP Film Club event about Hilan Warshaw's "Secret Song" on Sunday, February 18 at 2pm ET, ACMP's Executive Director Stephanie Griffin had the pleasure of catching up with Hilan, and asking him about how his background as a musician led to a unique career as a filmmaker with a primary focus on musical subjects.

Read More ↗

Eugene Drucker and Hilan Warshaw discuss “Secret Song”

Join ACMP on Sunday, February 18 at 2pm Eastern for an online discussion with film-maker Hilan Warshaw and former Emerson Quartet violinist Eugene Drucker about the genesis of "Secret Song," the making of the film and the sultry story behind Alban Berg's Lyric Suite for string quartet.

Read More ↗

Harmonizing Decades: A 2024 Follow-up to our 1996 Quartet session

When ACMP member violinist Gualtiero Morpurgo was visiting the United States from Milan in 1996, he found fellow violinist Mark Atkins in the ACMP Directory. Mark organized a string quartet session with Gualtiero, and later in life learned of his touching life story.

Read More ↗

How to put on a great adult chamber music workshop

Join ACMP Secretary and Grants Committee chair Susan Alexander on Tuesday, January 23 at 2:30pm Eastern for an illuminating online panel discussion about how to organize your own adult amateur chamber music workshop. Susan will be joined by experts in the field: Javier Caballero (Executive Director of the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music), Susie Ikeda (Executive Director of the Chamber Music Conference) and pianist/educator Nancy Breth (founder of the Levine School of Music's Chamber Music Weekend for adult amateurs.)

Read More ↗

Announcing the 2023 Holiday Caption Contest Winners!

ACMP’s 2nd annual Holiday Caption Contest was a resounding success! We received 96 captions from 44 ACMP members – exactly twice as many participants as last year. This year's winners were Raul Kottler, Ken Margolis and Rebecca Sayles.

Read More ↗

Rochester Report: An Interview with NAOC Councilor Roberta Zalkind

On a recent visit to Rochester, NY, ACMP Executive Director Stephanie Griffin reached out to local NAOC councilor and fellow violist Roberta Zalkind. Roberta gave Stephanie a tour of the Eastman Community Music School (a repeat ACMP grantee), introduced her to the school's director Petar Kodzas and invited her home for dinner, where the two violists got acquainted with one another and discussed the state of amateur chamber music in Rochester. After the visit, Stephanie followed up with this interview with Roberta.

Read More ↗

Report from the Netherlands: Excerpts from “Amateurs in European Music”

Here are a few highlights from an essay written by Marine Park, participant of the Wijnhaven Festival, Dordrecht, Netherlands in conjunction with Bas van Ouwerkerk, organizer of the Festival. This version is a translation of some selected excerpts from the full essay which was published in Korean in the Music Journal of Korea.

Read More ↗

Introducing new IAC Chair, Sean Knox

ACMP is pleased to announce the appointment of Sean Knox as Chair of its International Advisory Council (IAC). Sean is a professionally trained cellist and also plays the piano (and recently started learning the harp). He is passionate about playing chamber music, and has done so with numerous groups in London, Switzerland and his home country of South Africa.

Read More ↗

Chamber Music in France! The Trouville-sur-Mer Workshop Report

The Trouville-sur-Mer chamber music workshop was a success this year. Twenty-two participants ranging in age from 11 to 82 came from various parts of France and abroad. The workshop culminated in two well-attended concerts.

Read More ↗

Rice University Chamber Music Club Partners with ACMP

The Rice University Chamber Music Club is the first official university-student organization to be affiliated with ACMP. Founded by violinist Gale Gai, the club just held its first concert, sponsored in part by a Just Play grant from ACMP!

Read More ↗

Two left hands! On playing Christopher Walken’s left hand in “A Late Quartet”

Longtime ACMP supporter, cellist and chamber music workshop organizer David Bakamjian is also a movie star! He played Christopher Walken's left hand in Yaron Zilberman's 2012 film "A Late Quartet." Watch or rewatch the film and then join ACMP in a film club discussion on Saturday December 9 at 2pm Eastern with two professional chamber musicians who coached the actors on playing violin and viola.

Read More ↗

Giving Back to the Community: ACMP and Music for Food

On the 2023 New York City Marathon Day - Sunday, November 5 - over 40 ACMP members from the New York City metropolitan area joined forces in an en masse Play-In at Broadway Presbyterian Church, as a benefit for violist Kim Kashkashian's nonprofit Music for Food, a musician-led initiative to fight hunger in our local communities.

Read More ↗

ACMP Film Club: A Late Quartet

Former Attacca Quartet members Keiko Tokunaga and Luke Fleming share their insights on Yaron Zilberman's film "A Late Quartet."

Read More ↗

A new way to support ACMP: Holiday Shopping!

Buy exciting holiday merchandise and a hard-to-find book in ACMP's new online store!

Read More ↗

Home Coaching Report: David Yang in Belgium

American violist David Yang traveled to Belgium to coach two string quartets from the local membership organization I Cambristi Brussels, September 15 - 17, 2023. The project was funded by two Home Coaching Grants from ACMP.

Read More ↗

Load More

 

All Articles By