William Schimmel and Peter Jarvis have combined their superb talents to create a new CD, “Dragonfly” a collection of duos:  Peter Jarvis – Composers, Percussion, William Schimmel – Composers, Accordion, and vocals. “Dragonfly” consists of composed and improvised music for accordion, percussion, and voice. The digital release on NAXOS, etc. will be on September 6, 2020.

In the meantime, please contact Peter Jarvis if you are interested in a hard copy ($10.00 free US Shipping.) The release is on Composers Concordance Records #CONCOM0060. David Kerzner did the engineering and mastering. Cover photo by David Kerzner.

Peter Jarvis is a percussionist, drummer, conductor, composer, music copyist, print music editor and college professor. He is Director of New Music at William Paterson University. He teaches percussion and chamber music at William Paterson University, Connecticut College and Bergen Community College in New Jersey. He is an Associate Director of he Composers Concordance and has over 100 compositions.

Over the decades, he has performed popular and unpopular music with equal enthusiasm. He has performed as a soloist, chamber player, Broadway musician and as conductor/player with numerous chamber music ensembles, orchestras and choruses.  The proliferation of percussion literature is extremely important to Jarvis, and nearly 100 solo pieces have been composed for him, which he has performed on multi percussion, timpani, vibraphone, marimba, solo snare drum and drum set composed for him.

He has been nominated for a Golden Globe and an Academy award for “Best Score” as part of the composing team for major Hollywood films.

Dr William Schimmel is a leading accordionist, composer and academic, based in New York, where he organizes the annual ‘Master Class and Concert Series (The Seminars)’ sponsored by the American Accordionists’ Association. He received a Merit Award from the AAA for his contributions spanning fifty years plus the “Accordionist of the Year” Award in 1988. He has performed with many major symphony orchestras in the US, many chamber groups, as well as with rock), jazz, and avant-garde groups.

As a Juilliard trained musician, he is frequently asked to play with the Philharmonic and other orchestras around the country. He also performs in the pit orchestras on Broadway, his most recent performance being the accordionist for the award winning production of “An American in Paris.” Over the years Bill’s music has been included in television shows and films. His best known appearance is in the tango scene of “Scent of a Woman” starring Al Pacino. (See video above)

Bill Schimmel learned accordion as a child and attended Julliard School of Music where he received his doctorate in composition. While he was still a student at the school, his career was launched after he recorded songs of avant gard composer, Luiano Berio. An authority on Kurt Weill, Dr. Schimmel has recorded all of Weill’s music with accordion. Beginning in 1981, Schimmel’s Tango Project has released a string of acclaimed recordings on the Nonesuch and Newport Classic labels. The first Tango Project recording went to No. 1 on Billboard’s classical charts and was named Record of the Year by Stereo Review magazine.

For further information: accordionbill@gmail.com
Dragonfly – liner notes.pdf