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Harry Appelman

About Me

My Jazz Story

Jazz pianist and educator 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 overseas -- to South and Central America, Eastern Europe, Turkey and Cyprus, and South Asia. He performed in Egypt in February 2008 with the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, and has performed at the Festival Gnaouas et Musiques du Monde in Essaouira, Morocco and the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. Mr. Appelman is a member 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 International Jazz Piano Competitions (finishing second in 1988) and one of three prizewinners in the 1989 Great American Jazz Piano Competition. Appelman has performed in small groups led by Conrad Herwig, Eddie Daniels, Gary Thomas, George Garzone, Jerry Bergonzi, Jim Snidero, Valery Ponomarev, Brian Lynch, Don Braden, Vincent Herring, Jack Wilkins and Walt Weiskopf, among others. 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 the Kennedy Center, Wolf Trap, Twins, and other popular jazz venues.