NEW YORK — If you’ve heard music with an accordion, chances are you’ve heard Bill Schimmel playing it.
Schimmel is a virtuoso accordionist and composer who’s called New York home since attending Juilliard back in the 1960s. He’s since cemented himself as a go-to in the worlds of professional music, music education and accordion performance. Schimmel says it all started with him wanting to fit it around the family.
“Whenever I went to parties and family gatherings the accordion players – the uncles – were having more fun. So that’s where I wanted to be. Initially, to be a respectable member of the family,” he said.
During his teenage years, Schimmel realized the instrument that helped him assimilate at home, set him apart around his friends growing up in Philadelphia. Schimmel can remember how he “would bring my accordion to parties, thinking it would be a chick magnet… And it wasn’t! This was post-World-War America and we were all trying to be Americans, and I think you put an accordion on and you immediately show your ethnic roots.”
Schimmel moved to New York and graduated from Juilliard. He worked his way into New York’s professional music scene composing, conducting and playing. His band The Tango Project had a gig playing at a Tango School teaching Al Pacino how to dance for the film “Scent of a Woman.” Pacino preferred the band’s performances, which led to Schimmel’s big screen debut. In addition to film, Schimmel’s work has been heard from the biggest stages to hit TV shows.
Today, Schimmel collaborates with former Juilliard classmate and dancer Micki Goodman and his son Michael to spread the love of music with special-needs adults. He’s also known for holding yearly accordion seminars meant to support the resurgence of accordion and propel the instrument into the future.
