Music has the power to connect people across space and time.
Music lets us explore emotional realms beyond the constraints of words.
Music exists to enrich our lives in more ways than we can count.
For over twenty years, Chappell Kingsland has been producing and performing concerts of extraordinary variety. His first musical love was the piano, that most incredible one-person orchestra. As a teenager, this interest was rivaled by the allure of the mighty pipe organ.
After a musically rich upbringing in suburban Maryland, Chappell got his undergraduate degree in Organ and Composition at the prestigious Eastman School of Music. His graduate studies at the Jacobs School of Music led to a Doctorate in Composition. Visit ck4composer.com to get a taste of his original music, everything from choral works to bassoon ensembles, from operas to Balinese gamelan.
The 2017-18 season was a flurry of new performances. He gave several solo piano shows at Denver venues (La Cour, Mercury Cafe) and presented An Organ/Piano Spectacular, in which orchestral transcriptions for organ bookend a set of virtuoso rock piano arrangements. Chappell's instrumental rock band Electric Athena gave their first concerts of equally mind-bending arrangements of popular songs for violin, cello, piano and percussion. His record label, Virtuoso Rock Records, released their first commercial album, Rock Piano Solos. All told, Chappell produced sixteen concerts in various Colorado cities during 2018.
2019 began with a bang - the groundbreaking Kashmir Concerto, the first symphonic piece to blend Led Zeppelin with world music, was debuted on an unforgettable program of music from five continents. The Wild Beautiful Orchestra, which gave the premiere, has now evolved into a flexible ensemble of conservatory and community musicians. After the Lamont Opera Theatre performed his opera, The Firebringers, Chappell took the summer off to be with his family as his son Phuzzy was born! The WBO's next project was to perform at Halloween festivals in Denver in Lakewood, a program of spooky favorites from "Thriller" to Night on Bald Mountain featuring 15 players and 4 vocalists.
2021 saw the return of concerts, with the livestream-only I Love the '90s and the hybrid Impressionist Fantasies (with guests Zoe Spangler and Bryan Chuan). The year wrapped up with a holiday tradition: Piano Christmas in person and livestream! In 2022-23, Chappell focused on developing the Wild Beautiful Orchestra, with a flurry of concerts and recordings, hiring over fifty musicians and collaborating with groups from Kim Robards Dance to the Rocky Mountain Ringers.
In 2023, Chappell gave a performance of Nirvana's Nevermind album as a rock piano solo. Beginning in June 2024, he is touring with performances of Sgt. Pepper and the Magical Mystery Piano. The first half of the concert is a complete arrangement of the Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, while the second half consists of requests from the audience - any of the band's 200+ recorded songs!
Music lets us explore emotional realms beyond the constraints of words.
Music exists to enrich our lives in more ways than we can count.
For over twenty years, Chappell Kingsland has been producing and performing concerts of extraordinary variety. His first musical love was the piano, that most incredible one-person orchestra. As a teenager, this interest was rivaled by the allure of the mighty pipe organ.
After a musically rich upbringing in suburban Maryland, Chappell got his undergraduate degree in Organ and Composition at the prestigious Eastman School of Music. His graduate studies at the Jacobs School of Music led to a Doctorate in Composition. Visit ck4composer.com to get a taste of his original music, everything from choral works to bassoon ensembles, from operas to Balinese gamelan.
The 2017-18 season was a flurry of new performances. He gave several solo piano shows at Denver venues (La Cour, Mercury Cafe) and presented An Organ/Piano Spectacular, in which orchestral transcriptions for organ bookend a set of virtuoso rock piano arrangements. Chappell's instrumental rock band Electric Athena gave their first concerts of equally mind-bending arrangements of popular songs for violin, cello, piano and percussion. His record label, Virtuoso Rock Records, released their first commercial album, Rock Piano Solos. All told, Chappell produced sixteen concerts in various Colorado cities during 2018.
2019 began with a bang - the groundbreaking Kashmir Concerto, the first symphonic piece to blend Led Zeppelin with world music, was debuted on an unforgettable program of music from five continents. The Wild Beautiful Orchestra, which gave the premiere, has now evolved into a flexible ensemble of conservatory and community musicians. After the Lamont Opera Theatre performed his opera, The Firebringers, Chappell took the summer off to be with his family as his son Phuzzy was born! The WBO's next project was to perform at Halloween festivals in Denver in Lakewood, a program of spooky favorites from "Thriller" to Night on Bald Mountain featuring 15 players and 4 vocalists.
2021 saw the return of concerts, with the livestream-only I Love the '90s and the hybrid Impressionist Fantasies (with guests Zoe Spangler and Bryan Chuan). The year wrapped up with a holiday tradition: Piano Christmas in person and livestream! In 2022-23, Chappell focused on developing the Wild Beautiful Orchestra, with a flurry of concerts and recordings, hiring over fifty musicians and collaborating with groups from Kim Robards Dance to the Rocky Mountain Ringers.
In 2023, Chappell gave a performance of Nirvana's Nevermind album as a rock piano solo. Beginning in June 2024, he is touring with performances of Sgt. Pepper and the Magical Mystery Piano. The first half of the concert is a complete arrangement of the Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, while the second half consists of requests from the audience - any of the band's 200+ recorded songs!
