Baltimore County, MD smARTS, 30 Mar 2016

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From YouTube: smARTS: From Classic Pianist to Riffing Jazz Artist, Meet Jeffrey Chappell (Spring 2016)

Description

Listen to jazz by Otherworld.

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Joining us now is one of baltimore's finest performing artists.

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Jeffrey chappell is a musician, composer, and educator.

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Jeffrey, welcome to smarts. thanks so much! well,, I've known about you for a long time.. You are an extraordinary pianist.

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you've played with some of the country's major symphonies;. You compose.

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Just give us a quick little synopsis if you could.

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Well, as a classical musician,, I've performed throughout the united states and asia, europe, and latin america, and with orchestras such as philadelphia, pittsburgh,, indiana.

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I pretty hold the record for concerto solos with baltimore symphony.

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I've been a soloist with them over 40 times. terrific!, that's fantastic!,.

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And then you also share your talents as an educator.

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Yes, and fortunately, I love teaching.

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And that's why I do a lot of it., I'm at goucher, college. also, at levine school in washington, d.c., and I teach privately as well.

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Okay,, so you have had this fabulous, classical career, and then in about 1992. You went to the dark, side.

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( laughter, ). Tell me a little bit --. Somehow jazz took a great interest for you.

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Well,, what I like to say is my mother played chopin and my father played boogie woogie.

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Okay, ah there we go! so, pretty much the first half of my life was all about being a classical pianist.

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And then I got this curiosity about jazz and I just had to know what's going on there., and so I started learning it and eventually got to the position.

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Of being able to teach it, and I'm very good at taking classical musicians over that line to be able to play jazz.

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Yeah, that crossover. that's fantastic., it's a whole different approach, correct? well... uses a different part of the brain...

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In a way, yes,, because most of music education now is just about playing what's written on a page and there's not much emphasis on improvisation or composition.

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And a total musician does all those things.

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so, I like to teach the total musician that way.

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So you have this wonderful jazz studies program at goucher.

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And fortunately, you've had some very talented students over the years.

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Come through,, which now leads me to my next question: --.

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And we're going to be treated later in the program to a wonderful performance by your group called "otherworld.".

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Yes. yeah, tell us how that all formed, got together.

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Well, I've been teaching at goucher, of course, and these other three musicians were all my students there in various ways,.

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Including piano lessons or taking my jazz theory class.

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Or my jazz history class, things like that.

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and all of them are alumni now and they're all out doing their own things. Professionally.

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But about two or three years ago,, we were together sort of jamming.

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And the drummer says to me, "would you like to join this group?".

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And so I'm telling you that, because it might look like.

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Teacher takes students and invites them to--.

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It was the other way around. here. It's the other way, around. good for you,, guys! okay,, so we're going to--, they're, very talented young musicians..

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I got to hear them a little bit. Earlier; very handsome.

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Just give us their names quickly and what they play.

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well,. The handsome bass player is chris taylor.

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And the handsome guitar player is jake kohlhas.

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And the handsome drummer is jake marinari.

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Okay, and tell us a little bit about what the group is doing.. I know you have some upcoming performances in the area.

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Right. in april, on the 22nd, we're playing at the sandy spring museum.

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okay. and then in may on the 14th we're at an due musik here in baltimore.

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Sure, wonderful venue in the city. and then june 22nd we're playing.

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One of the new free outdoor concerts at goucher, college.

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Terrific! all right,, so everybody can get that information on your website.

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Right,, which is otherworldjazz.com.

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Okay, and I do love your music and I'm not just saying that, because you're sitting right here,, but people can go onto the website,.

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Download the tracks.

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Yes. they can download this album. thank you. for me?. Thank you. So much!.

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Which is our debut album,, which won a global music award,.

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Which is an international competition., terrific!? Well please,. I encourage everyone to come to the concerts.

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That you're going to be presenting and also go online.

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Otherworld,, thank you so much. jeffrey chappell, congratulations..

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Thank you. So much. we'll be right back with a performance from otherworld.

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(, ♪♪♪ ).

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Ladies and gentlemen, otherworld.

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(, jazz, music, ).