William Appling

Cleveland, Ohio area gospel pianist, choir director, and arranger. Born 3 November 1932, died 29 August 2008. Among the honors he has received were First Prize in Piano from the National association of Negro Musicians, and the first Kulas Foundation Fellowship Award for Choral Conducting with The Cleveland Orchestra. He has served on the faculties of the Cleveland Institute of Music and Case Western Reserve University and was Chairman of the music department at Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio. He was founder and director of the Summer Music Experience, which offers to students of high school age from many states and several foreign countries intensive training and musical experience with Cleveland Orchestra members and other prominent musicians. He appeared as solo pianist with The Cleveland Orchestra and Cleveland Pops Orchestra, in solo recital at Town Hall in New York, and under the baton of French composer Darius Milhaud at Aspen, Colorado. He directed Cleveland's [a6848848] and northern Ohio's only professional chamber chorus, William Appling Singers.