Chappell Kingsland is a composer, multi-faceted musician, and teacher. His compositional interests extend from avant-garde chamber music to church music, from Brazilian samba to rock music, from Balinese gamelan to Japanese koto. His works have won first prize in contests sponsored by the Percussive Arts Society, International Tuba-Euphonium Association, Indiana University, National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts, and the Atlanta Clarinet Association. His music has been performed in the United States, Austria, and Australia. After the successful premiere of his opera Intoxication: America’s Love Affair with Oil, Chappell received a commission from Roundabout Opera for Kids for a 35-minute chamber opera exploring mythology from three continents: The Discovery of Fire.

 

Chappell has a Doctorate of Music in Composition from Indiana University (2013), a Masters of Music also from IU (2010), and a Bachelors degree in Composition and Organ Performance from the Eastman School of Music (2002). Chappell spent a year in Vienna, Austria studying privately with Chaya Czernowin, now head of Harvard’s composition department. Other teachers have included Claude Baker, Augusta Read Thomas, Don Freund, P. Q. Phan, Christopher Rouse, David Liptak, Aaron Travers and Daniel Godfrey. He has studied organ with Hans Davidsson, Katie Pardee, and Michael Farris.

 

“Music is my favorite form of art, for the totality of its embrace. It is surely the most mysterious form of human communication, for it is an abstract language of sounds, yet it can convey such specific feelings and thoughts.”