William Thomas Appling (November 3, 1932 - August 29, 2008) was a renowned American conductor, pianist, educator and arranger. As a conductor he led the William Appling Singers & Orchestra for almost twenty-five years and conducted other choirs and musical organizations, premiering new works by many American composers. As a pianist he played under the batons of conductors including Robert Shaw, Louis Lane, and Darius Milhaud, and he was the first African American to record the complete piano music of Scott Joplin. As an educator he taught at American schools and universities including Vassar College, Case Western Reserve University, the Cleveland Institute of Music and Western Reserve Academy.(20 July 1983). 'William Appling is soul of music for former pupils', by Maria Riccardi, Page 60. The Plain Dealer. (Cleveland, Ohio). He made a number of recordings as both conductor and pianist, and his choral arrangements have been performed and recorded by such prominent ensembles as Chanticleer, Cantus and Dale Warland Singers.
Biography
Early life Appling was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, the youngest in a family of four boys and three girls. Neither his father, Bradford Appling, nor his mother, Gertrude Wynn Appling, were musicians, though they encouraged him to pursue his talent. He attended Cleveland's John Adams High School and his formal education was completed upon graduating with both a BA and MA from Case Western Reserve University. His preparation included piano study with Elizabeth Lambright, Frances Bolton Kortheuer, Egbert Fischer, and Leonard Shure, and organ study with Edwin Arthur Kraft.
Career and influence As conductor
During his years in the Cleveland area, Appling was Director of the Choral Club of Glenville High School from 1955 to 1965. Under his leadership the choir became well known throughout Ohio and beyond, accepting invitations to sing at the Hollywood Bowl, the 1964 New York World's Fair and at educators' meetings in Ohio and Indianapolis. In 1965, the Cleveland Board of Education presented the Choral Club in a sold-out concert at Severance Hall.(21 February 1964). 'Precisioned and Unique,' by Cheryl Mines, Page 27. The Plain Dealer. (Cleveland, Ohio).(20 February 1965). 'Glenville Concert Is Sell-Out'. Page 9. The Plain Dealer, (Cleveland, Ohio).
Appling also served as the Choral Director of the Case Men's Glee Club from 1964 to 1979,(29 November 1964). 'Appling Gets Post at Case'. Page 32-E. The Plain Dealer. (Cleveland, Ohio). West Shore Chorale from 1970 to 1981, the University Circle Singers at the Cleveland Institute of Music,(4 December 1966). 'William Appling Conducts the University Circle Singers'. Page 22-E. The Plain Dealer. (Cleveland, Ohio). and was a guest conductor and prepared choruses for the Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra from 1966 to 1968. He also served as guest director of choral conferences throughout Ohio and the United States.
In 1965, Appling received the first Kulas Foundation Fellowship Award for Choral Conducting with the Cleveland Orchestra, in which capacity he served as assistant to Robert Shaw, then conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus.(21 November 1965). 'Appling Is Kulas Fellow for Chorus' p. 48. The Plain Dealer. (Cleveland, Ohio).
In 1979, Appling founded the William Appling Singers & Orchestra (WASO), a professional ensemble performing primarily choral works of all periods and styles. The group's premiere performance was at the Cleveland Institute of Music on March 9, 1980, presenting an all-Mozart program.(2 March 1980). Listing for William Appling Singers and Orchestra concert. The Plain Dealer. (Cleveland, Ohio). WASO premiered the works of many contemporary American composers, including those by Richard Hundley,(3 June 1983). 'Richard Hundley, non-conformist' by Robert Finn, Page 153. The Plain Dealer. (Cleveland, Ohio). Donald Erb,(4 April 1968). 'Donald Erb Music Program Impressive,' by Robert Finn, Page 24. The Plain Dealer. (Cleveland, Ohio). and Richard Edward Wilson.(25 July 1980). 'Composer Wilson Has a Splendid Evening' by Robert Finn, Page 72. The Plain Dealer. (Cleveland, Ohio) In Ohio, WASO appeared in concert at Severance Hall,(29 December 1980). 'Appling Singers score on 'Messiah' ' by Robert Finn, Page 63. The Plain Dealer. (Cleveland, Ohio) Blossom Music Center, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and numerous church concerts. The group was noted for its performances of J.S. Bach's Mass in B minor(11 May 1982). 'Appling Group Makes Bach Mass Pleasurable' by Robert Finn, Page 22. The Plain Dealer. (Cleveland, Ohio). and during the holiday seasons their presentation of Handel's Messiah became a welcome tradition in the Cleveland area.(29 December 1980). 'Appling Singers score on 'Messiah' ' by Robert Finn, Page 63. The Plain Dealer. (Cleveland, Ohio). Appling and WASO also collaborated on projects with the prominent musician, sociologist and musicologist Zelma Watson George in community outreach programs such as A Joyful Noise, which was presented at Cleveland's legendary Karamu House and Mount Zion Congregational Church.(8 April 1983). "Appling Singers Plan Program, 'A Joyful Noise'" p 26. The Plain Dealer. (Cleveland, Ohio).
Appling was music director and conductor of the premiere of Leslie Adams's opera, Blake, in a 70-minute concert version at the Cleveland Play House in June, 1985.(1 January 1983). "Slave Rebellion Before Civil War Stirs Work on Opera," by Robert Finn p. 7-B. The Plain Dealer. (Cleveland, Ohio).
On February 22, 1990, Appling was guest artist for A Night to Remember, sponsored by the University of Akron in conjunction with the university's Black Cultural Center to recognize the contributions of Blacks to the arts. The program included excerpts from Porgy and Bess and a tribute to the late choreographer Alvin Ailey.
After moving to New York in 1990 to become Director of Choral Activities at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, Appling re-established WASO on the east coast where the ensemble performed throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. From 1991 to 1995, Appling and WASO were associated with the Bard Music Festival, founded by Leon Botstein. In 1991, he prepared the chorus for the Festival's performance of Felix Mendelssohn's choral symphony Lobgesang. The Bard Festival focused on composer Richard Strauss in 1992, and about the festival critic Edward Said wrote in The Nation magazine, "For me, there was one particularly jolting work that stood out over all the others. Performed with rapt concentration by the William Appling Singers under Appling, a remarkable choral conductor, it was heard for the first time in the United States: Strauss's Deutsche Motette, Op. 62, composed in 1913, revised in 1943." In 1993, he prepared the chorus in performances that were part of the Antonín Dvořák festival in New York City. 1994's Bard Festival was devoted to Robert Schumann, and in 1995, Appling and WASO were part of the Bard Music Festival's Rediscoveries - Béla Bartók and His World.
On October 7, 1996, WASO was the only professional musical organization in the United States to present a concert celebrating the 250th anniversary of the birth of William Billings, America's first great native-born composer at Christ & Saint Stephen's Episcopal Church in New York City.
As pianist
William Appling enjoyed an active career as a concert pianist, giving many recitals in the Cleveland area during the 1950s and '60s. On April 1, 1962, with Robert Shaw conducting the Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall, Appling was piano soloist in George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. On August 11, 1962, he performed Rhapsody in Blue in a Pops Concert in Public Auditorium with Louis Lane conducting the Cleveland Orchestra. Appling also appeared as part of the Brooklyn Museum Concerts Program series in January, 1963, and in solo recital at The Town Hall, New York City, in April, 1964. He also played Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 under the baton of Hyman Schandler and the Cleveland Women's Orchestra in 1965.(8 May 1967). 'Soloists Brighten Women's Concert' by Ethel Boros, p. 24. The Plain Dealer. (Cleveland, Ohio).
Appling also appeared at the Aspen Music Festival under Darius Milhaud and in duo recital with tenor Seth McCoy and his then wife, soprano Anita Appling. Early in his career, in 1952, he appeared as accompanist with the legendary composer and musician W. C. Handy in a program sponsored by the National Association of Negro Musicians.(2 March 1952). 'W. C. Handy Program' by Herbert Elwell Page 36-D. The Plain Dealer. (Cleveland, Ohio).
During the 2000s, while working on his Scott Joplin project, Appling performed several times at venues in New York City and Massachusetts. He performed a program of Scott Joplin on March 16, 2004, at the Church of the Holy Apostles in Manhattan when the church's soup kitchen served its 5 millionth meal.
As arranger Appling arranged a number of Negro spirituals for chorus. Two of these arrangements are published by J.W. Pepper & Son: We Shall Walk Through the Valley in Peace, and Yonda' Come Day. His arrangement of We Shall Walk Through the Valley in Peace has been widely performed and is included on recordings by such prominent ensembles as Chanticleer on its 1994 Teldec recording, Where the Sun Will Never Go Down, and by The Dale Warland Singers' Harvest Home from 2005 on the Gothic label. The arrangement also appears on WASO's own 2000 recording, Shall We Gather, on Albany Records. A recording of We Shall Walk Through the Valley in Peace, with an arrangement by Appling and Joseph Jennings from a live concert featuring Chanticleer and Cantus, has been widely viewed.
As educator Appling served on the faculties of Case Western Reserve University from 1964 to 1979 and the Cleveland Institute of Music from 1961 to 1970. He joined the music department at Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio, in 1965, and was appointed head of the department in 1971, serving in that capacity until 1989.
While at Western Reserve Academy, Appling "helped sculpt the music program into one of the region's preeminent programs." [WRA note] In addition to musical instruction, he gave the high school students numerous opportunities to perform both at the school's Hudson, Ohio, campus and at outside venues. In 1972, nine members of the WRA Glee Club joined the Case Men's Glee Club on a ten-day concert tour of Europe. The WRA chorus and glee club sang at Christmas at Stan Hywet, an annual series of classical programs, and the school's music department organized annual Music Festivals and Messiah Sings.
In 1972, Appling founded and directed Summer Music Experience, an international six-week program offering intensive music training and performance experience to gifted students of high school age. The music camp/festival involved members of the Cleveland Orchestra and included visiting artists and master classes with Robert Shaw,(22 July 1978). 'Youth no obstacle for Summer Music Experience' by Robert Finn, p. 3-B. The Plain Dealer. (Cleveland, Ohio). Grant Johannesen, Louis Lane, André Watts, Phyllis Curtin,(22 October 1972). 'A Summer Discovery at Hudson' by Robert Finn, p. 9-G. The Plain Dealer. (Cleveland, Ohio). Matthias Bamert and many others.
In June, 1989, Appling was dismissed by Western Reserve Academy and his firing was met with protests and objections by a large number of the school's students, parents and alumni and members of the public. A defense fund raised several thousand dollars to help defray legal fees, and he and the school negotiated a financial settlement in 1990. The Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote an extended article which included speculations about reasons for the dismissal, but these were never publicly disclosed by Appling or the school.