Peter Jarvis & William Schimmel
Biography Peter Jarvis & William Schimmel
Peter Jarvis
As director of the highly acclaimed New Jersey Percussion Ensemble, Peter Jarvis is active as a percussionist, conductor, educator, composer and administrator. He has played with or conducted many of the major new music groups in New York and New Jersey and has enjoyed an extensive touring career, appearing as a soloist for New Music Festivals including the Europe Asia Festival in Kazan Russia and as a guest of the ISCM League of Composers in New York. He has performed for Radio Denmark, PBS, Russian and Hong Kong television and WNYC in New York, and can be heard on many recordings. He is on the faculty of William Paterson University and Connecticut College, where he teaches percussion and conducts new music and percussion ensembles.
Bill 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 (AAA).
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)
