Chappell Kingsland's diverse professional activities share a common goal: to promote cross-cultural understanding and create emotionally rich experiences through music. He is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Denver's Lamont School of Music teaching Aural Skills, Theory at the Keyboard, and Arranging. Dr. Kingsland's classes explore music from many different time periods, world cultures, and genres.

As a solo pianist and organist, his concerts and recordings weave together art music and popular music into a uniquely personal synthesis. The piano concert Sgt. Pepper and the Magical Mystery Tour includes intricate arrangements and spontaneous improvisations on songs by the Beatles.

As a composer, Dr. Kingsland thrives at the intersection of musical worlds, drawing equal inspiration from the European/American tradition and from diverse musical sources ranging from Balinese gamelan and Japanese koto to Bulgarian dance and West African kora.  His operas Intoxication: America’s Love Affair with Oil and The Firebringers have been performed as mainstage and outreach productions in Colorado and Indiana.  

Dr. Kingsland’s degrees are from the Eastman School of Music (BM) and Indiana University (MM, DM). He is Executive Director of the Wild Beautiful Orchestra, a collective of freelance and youth musicians in the Denver area.  Founded in 2019, the WBO performs two to five concerts per year in venues ranging from concert halls and large churches to school auditoriums and outdoor Halloween festivals.  The group has released a full album of music by Sorabji on BIS Records, an EP of popular song arrangements, and an album by Colorado composer Keith Ferguson.