Kapell, William
Kapell, William
Kapell, William, brilliant American pianist; b. N.Y., Sept. 20, 1922; d. in an airplane crash at King’s Mountain, near San Francisco, Oct. 29, 1953. He studied with Dorothea La Follette in N.Y., and later with Olga Samaroff at the Philadelphia Cons, of Music and at the Juilliard School of Music in N.Y. After winning the Philadelphia Orch/s youth competition and the Naumburg Award (1941), he made his N.Y. debut on Oct. 28, 1941; subsequently appeared as a soloist with the major American orchs. and in Europe. He died on a return flight from Australia, where he had been touring. Kapell was an outstanding technician who was also capable of the most refined playing.
Bibliography
T. Page, W. K.: A Documentary Life History of the American Pianist (College Park, Md., 1992).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire