William Schimmel

He received a Composers' Citation from The American Accordionists' Association in honor of his composition, "The Spring Street Ritual", which was the test piece for the 1979 Coupe Mondiale World Competition. He received The Confédération internationale des accordéonistes Merit Award for his contributions as a composer, performer and philosopher on the international accordion scene. He received a Merit Award from the American Accordionists' Association for his contributions spanning fifty years plus the "Accordionist of the Year" Award in 1988. He received the Keyboard magazine readers' poll award in 1992 as "Best Accordionist". He has served and continues to serve as Artist in Residence of The American Accordionist's where he also serves as Distinguished Lecturer in Residence and member of the Governing Board. National Public Radio called Schimmel the world's greatest accordionist. New Yorker Magazine called him Gotham's Happy Warrior of the Accordion. Accordion Star Illustrated Magazine called him the World's most important accordionist and inducted him into the American Accordion Hall of fame. Schimmel won the Stereo Review Album of the year award, and was nominated for a Grammy award. While at Juilliard, Schimmel was awarded two teaching fellowships and twice awarded the Rodgers and Hammerstein Scholarship in composition. Schimmel is also the recipient of Grants from The American Music Center, International Society for Contemporary Music, Meet the Composer and I-Park.

William Schimmel (born 1946) is one of the principal architects in the resurgence of the accordion, and the philosophy of "Musical Reality" (composition with pre-existing music). He holds Bachelor of Music, Master of Science and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in composition from the Juilliard School, along with a diploma from the Neupauer Conservatory of Music in performance/composition. He performs music in many genres, has commissioned and premiered hundreds of new works, has composed over 4000 works in every medium, has written a number of books and articles and has made numerous recordings and videos. He has composed over 4000 works in every medium including opera which have been performed by leading performers, ensembles and conductors including the Late Leopold Stokowski. His music has been featured in a number of films, most notably Scent of a Woman starring Al Pacino, where he appears in the famous Tango Scene with The Tango Project which he is a founding member and television shows.