David Apel

David Samuel Apelbaum (1904 – 16 September 1967), better known as David Apel, was a Czech-Singaporean pianist, accompanist, music teacher and conductor. Born in Austria-Hungary, he settled in Singapore and remained active there from the 1940s to his death in 1967.

Early life and education Apel was born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary in 1904. After receiving a formal education, he began attending the Prague Conservatory, where he studied under Conrad Ansorge and Alexander von Zemlinsky. The Straits Times reported that Apel took five years to complete his seven-year graduation course and then took the "Master's Course", which was "only for pupils with exceptional talent." He was also a "student-teacher". He graduated from the conservatory in 1933. He also supported the Czechoslovak Scientific Anti-Tuberculosis Society. In March 1940, he served as the accompaniment to violinist E. Schoen at a recital of the Kuala Lumpur Musical Society, held at The Majestic. In this period, Apel also gave music lessons. The Syonan Times, then renamed the Syonan Shimbun, reported that he was serving as the orchestra's pianist by April. By May, he had begun conducting for the orchestra. Eventually, he was interned with his wife for a few months. In a review of the orchestra's 2 March performance, the same critic wrote that Apel was "successful in securing some fine playing" and "[had] for Schubert the same loving understanding as he [had] for Haydn."

In November 1947, Apel announced that he would be resigning from Radio Malaya at the end of the month and that he would soon open a pianoforte studio and begin giving piano lessons. He claimed that piano teaching was "something [he had] always wanted to do." By July, Marie Aroozoo had become a student of his. In 1950, he organised and conducted for a concert which was to be held at the Victoria Memorial Hall on 12 and 13 December for the bicentenary of the death of Johann Sebastian Bach, featuring Bach's works, with the proceeds going to the Singapore Anti-Tuberculosis Association. He was the concert's originator and was reportedly the first to volunteer to produce it. Several of his students performed in the concert.

In August 1953, Apel announced that he had composed a song, for which Percival Frank Aroozoo provided the lyrics, which would be submitted to the competition which was to decide the official City Day Song for that years' City Day celebrations, which were to take place the following month. On 7 September, Yap Han Hong, the superintendent of the Victoria Theatre and Memorial Hall, claimed that Apel was the only one who had presented a complete song by then. After an audition, the song was officially selected as the City Day Song for 1953. The Singapore Standard opined that the song was a "work of inspiration and a credit to its composer".

Apel served as the piano accompaniment to a recital by Czech violinist Ladislav Jásek, which was held at the Victoria Theatre on 7 February 1960 with a special performance for students held the afternoon before. This was his "comeback" to the stage after "an absence of nearly 20 years." This was then followed by him serving as the accompaniment to a recital by Penang-born violinist Kam Kee Yong, held at the St. John's Church Hall on 11 June. In 1961, Apel served as the piano accompaniment to a performance by Shanghai-born coloratura-soprano Chen Li Ching, held at the Victoria Theatre on 6 February. Tan Thuan Kok of The Straits Times then reported that he was a "leading accompanist" in Singapore and that through the appearances he had made as piano accompaniment he had "already established himself as an artiste in his own right."

Personal life and death Apel was Jewish and he had shortened his surname to "Apel" from "Apelbaum" by the time he had arrived in Malaya, though he was known as "Apelbaum" during the Japanese Occupation.

Apel was among those invited to fly on Czech Airlines' inaugural weekly service from Jakarta to Prague through Singapore. He left for Prague on holiday on 15 September 1967. The following day, while he was attending an opera, he suffered a sudden heart attack and died.