Lemont, PA 16851
(814) 883-7799
damaple@comcast.net
I began building harpsichords and clavichords for my own enjoyment shortly after graduation from college in 1975, while working in a biochemical research lab. Earlier on I had studied piano, saxophone, and bassoon. Then in my undergraduate years I took as many music theory classes as I could fit into my scientific curriculum, and enjoyed playing in the university orchestra and other performing groups.
Once I became involved with making early keyboard instruments, my growing fascination with the instruments and their music led me to return to graduate school, culminating in the receipt of a Ph.D. in Musicology from the University of Chicago in 1987. During my graduate school years I still managed to find some time for building new instruments, and I also carried out extensive work in the maintenance and repair of instruments by other modern makers. This opportunity to examine instruments by a variety of makers taught me a lot about the elements that go into a good instrument, as well as seeing first hand a number of construction practices that usually result in unhappy consequences.
It was also during this academic period that I began an association with the Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. An initial summer internship was followed by a one-year post-graduate fellowship, which allowed me to study the surviving 16th-century Flemish virginals. In subsequent years I have continued to return to the Metropolitan Museum to examine various instruments from their large collection of harpsichords and clavichords, along with visits to other important American museum collections. This opportunity to study the work of makers of the past has had a tremendous influence on my own work.