Photo: Ed Chappell
She’s been awarded 8 Emmys as well as the Peabody Award, the Edward R. Murrow Award, the New York Festivals Gold World Medal, and the Angels of the Arts Award.
She’s released 35 albums internationally.
She composes and produces music for countless television and film scores, including National Geographic, PBS Nova, CNN, Carl Sagan, ABC, The Travel Channel, Valentino Fashions, The History Channel, HGN, MTV, The Guiding Light, NASA, and Apple Computers, among others.
She’s traveled the world as a solo artist and collector of indigenous instruments— China, Africa, Europe, Russia, Peru, Mexico, Japan, India, The Amazon, Costa Rica and the Caribbean.
She also records and performs with her various ensembles—The Devin Townsend Project, Emerald Web, Sonic Combine, Katalyst Project, RayDar Kats, and Anthropology Band.
For twenty years, legendary visual artist Robert Rauschenberg commissioned her to perform at his art openings internationally.
She’s a founding member of PeaceVision, a Media Company for Peace.
Who is she?
The extraordinary Kat Epple, whose breathtaking compositions on synthesizers, World Flutes and other acoustic instruments have allowed her to perform at places like the Guggenheim Museums, the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, the United Nations, London’s Union Chapel, Palazzo dei Diamanti, Italy, and the National Gallery, Africa.
“I live and breathe music. I hear music in my dreams,” Epple confided.
For her sensational life’s work as a composer, recording artist, flutist and synthesist, Naples Noteworthy is pleased to also honor Kat Epple with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Expedition
“Expedition” is the first song on the Elemental Circuitry album by Anthropology Band (Kat Epple and percussionist Nathan Dyke). This was an audience favorite when performed for “Art After Hours” at The Baker Museum last year. Epple is playing World Flute and synthesizer. Nathan Dyke is playing World percussion, Dumbek, and Berimbau (Berimbau is a Brazilian musical bow, made of wood, strung with a single metal wire that is typically drawn from an old truck or automobile tire).
Music of Childhood
Far away from an orchestra or a synthesizer, Kat Epple spent the first fourteen years of her life in the Appalachian region of the US. “Live music performances were bluegrass, gospel, and folk music in my grandma’s old country church, out in the hills, hollows, and backroads of a very rural area,” she remembered. “It was exciting to hear and watch those musicians play! They called it ‘hillbilly songs,’ and it was not the style of music that I envisioned myself ever playing, but I loved the music, and the way the musicians had fun collaborating together and improvising without using sheet music notation.”
Her parents were more likely to go birding than to Grandma’s church, and her family outings included hiking, fishing, fossil hunting, and camping. “Through these experiences, I developed an appreciation and deep spiritual connection to nature. At home, my family did not really listen to music, but sometimes music played in the background on the ‘Hi-Fi Stereo record player’.”
Music was not considered a career choice, but more of a hobby. “Now, all these years later, I can see the wisdom in that,” she admitted.
Formative Years
Epple started playing piano at 5 and took up the flute at age 8. She listened to “classical” music such as Gustav Holst, Mozart, and Edvard Grieg on vinyl records, and soon started creating her own musical melodies and stories. Other influences growing up were Saint-Saëns, Vangelis, King Crimson, Ennio Morricone, Gorō Yamaguchi, Pink Floyd, and Talking Heads. (Her favorite music influences now are music she hasn’t heard before.)
“As a teenager, I wrote folky fantasy songs about dragons, wizards, magic, and far-away lands which I performed with small ensembles of acoustic instruments,” said Epple. “In my imagination, I could hear the songs being played on large string, woodwind, and brass sections. I wished that I could play the sound of an entire orchestra but knew that was not possible. (These many years later, I do play the sound of an orchestra in my film music scores in my recording studio using sampling technology.)”
Did Epple, then, plan on a career in music?
“Though music was already a big part of my life, I planned to study medicine and become a physician,” Epple reported. “We had moved to Southwest Florida, and I attended the University of South Florida and studied pre-med and a wide variety of other subjects. In my senior year, I was offered a scholarship for a medical school out of state but was later notified that the scholarship was deferred for one year because the quota for admitting female students had already been fulfilled for that year. When you are at the age of 21, a year seems like it is very far away in the future.
“Fortunately, at that time, I had found two new loves!
“The first new love was the synthesizer which I learned to play while attending USF at their SYCOM program in 1973. At that time, electronic synthesizers were new, analog, unfamiliar to most people, and hated by many. I loved the sounds that I could sculpt with this new musical instrument, which sounded like science fiction and a fascinating mashup of science and art.
“The other new love I found was Bob Stohl, who later became my compositional partner, bandmate, best friend, the other half of my electronic music duo, Emerald Web, and my husband. We moved to the New York City area, and I began to visualize my life as a professional musician. I knew it might not be an easy way to make a living, but for sure, it could be fun!
“I embarked on a new chapter of my life as I played ‘Space Music’ in concert on synthesizers and flutes with Bob, my new-found collaborator and life partner.”
Education
“I was classically trained on flute and played in symphony orchestras for a couple of years,” she related. “I studied synthesizer technique in college, and another important tool that I learned there was recording engineering. Of course, at that time, recording studios used reel-to-reel analog audio tape. I continue to engineer my albums and film scores and am constantly learning new technology. It is a skill that has been integral to my career as a producer and composer. I am self-taught on most of the other instruments I play.”
Why the flute?
“I always loved the sound of the flute, but I was also fascinated with the legends and stories about flute players,” she answered. “The Pied Piper of Hamelin, the Greek legend of Pan, Krishna, Buddha, and the Native American Medicine flute player are all examples of stories about the power of the flute, and how flute players are the bringers of spirituality, healing, stories, and magic.”
Film Scores and Television
Epple has a long list of film score and television music credits. We asked how she broke into the business, and how it took off from there.
“In the ’70s, my husband and I started composing music for film scores for corporate films and television commercials,” Epple answered. “Those projects paid a little bit of money, did not bring prestige, but more importantly, it was a ‘crash course’ in how to score music for film.
“Then in the 1980s we were contacted by Astronomer Carl Sagan (of ‘Cosmos’ fame) to create music for PBS Nova. We worked with him on many productions for several years, and probably because of that film credit, we began to receive calls from other video producers working on productions.”
Now, with countless film scores under her belt, Epple is prepared to compose music for almost any genre.
“As a film score composer, I create a variety of emotional landscapes and settings, from an unsettling, frightening place of horror to one of adventure, history, the future, or spirituality.”
Flight of the Raven
This song, “Flight of the Raven,” featured on the television show “Killing Eve” (BBC series), was originally released on Epple’s first Emerald Web album, Dragon Wings and Wizard Tales, recorded in 1978. Emerald Web was the electronic music duo that consisted of Epple and her husband Bob Stohl. “Based out of San Francisco, we specialized in performing concerts in planetariums with laser and star shows and at other science-based venues such as astronomical observatories and science museums. Emerald Web was known for playing ‘state-of-the-art’ synthesizers, so it is ironic that now our music is described as vintage synthesizer music,” Epple remarked. “Most of our albums have been remastered and re-issued or are in that process.”
Epple is the vocalist (lyricist and synthesist) for the song, still sings on recordings and in concert, and one of her recent compositions is a vocal piece that she plans to include on her next album.
Emmy and Peabody Awards
Epple has won 8 Emmys for her music compositions, as well as The Peabody Award. “The Emmy Awards were for music scores for several different documentary video productions,” she said. “The Peabody Award was for the WGCU (NPR) radio documentary ‘Lucia’s Letter’ written and produced by Amy Tardif which describes a Guatemalan teenager’s trip with a human trafficking coyote from Guatemala through Mexico to southwest Florida. I created the music for it.”
Inspiration
We asked Epple where she gets her inspiration for her compositions.
“Birds are an important source of inspiration in my music. I incorporate elements of their flight—feathers and bones—as well as songs in my compositions,” Epple related.
“I also enjoy collaborating with visual artists such as painters, dancers, and filmmakers.
“For example, my friend, legendary visual artist Robert Rauschenberg and I often had long conversations late into the night about art, music, and nature, and we often played music together.
“While playing symphonic music, I especially connected with the music of Gustav Holst, Claude Debussy, Camille Saint-Saëns, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Genesis, The Moody Blues, Yes and Emerson, Lake & Palmer.
“Improvising with other musicians is an inspiration, too. It creates a powerful connection between two humans that is intimate, spiritual, intellectual, and a complex conversation that requires no words.”
Sometimes the inspiration for her compositions comes entirely from within—or from the chords of primeval melodies riding on the winds of time. “There are times when sitting alone in a quiet place reveals new music that comes from that quiet place within. The music seems to float to me from a distant village from an unknown ancient culture. The timbres and rhythms are familiar, yet like nothing I’ve heard before.”
Lifetime Influences
“My husband Bob Stohl and I were young musicians learning and creating together. We each brought our own unique skills, perspective, techniques and aesthetic. We were evolving together, so had a great influence on each other. Unfortunately, my husband Bob passed away in 1990 at age 34.
“Another major impact on my life was legendary visual artist, Robert Rauschenberg. As previously mentioned, he invited me to play music for his art openings at the Guggenheim and other iconic venues. He told me he appreciated the way I didn’t just play music in those giant museum spaces that are like marble and granite canyons. Instead, he said, that I ‘played the room’ using the sound of my flute reverberating, resonating and echoing on the walls and ceiling as a part of a giant musical instrument which made the flute sounds wash over the walls, and ‘clean up the room, to make space for the art’.”
Most Impactful Cities
“San Francisco Bay Area in the 1980s was an exhilarating place to live and work, as Lucas films had moved to nearby Marin County, the Punk Music Scene was burgeoning, the Tech industry was in its infancy, Visual Arts and Performance art were thriving, and at the same time a spiritual renaissance of ‘New Age’ was flourishing.
“The Bay Area was also a physically beautiful area with mountains, ocean, hiking trails, and forests. It continues to be a gorgeous area, of course, although ‘the vibe’ there has changed since those ‘salad days’ of the 1980s.
“As you know, Naples, Florida is a beautiful city with sunsets over the Gulf, white sand beaches, art galleries, a charming downtown, and verdant pockets of nature. One of the most extraordinary things about Naples is the way the community supports arts and music. I see and feel that appreciation when I perform at events in Naples including at Artis-Naples, the Naples Winter Wine Festival dinners, for house concerts and at my lecture/concerts. It is an artsy town!”
Process
We were interested in Epple’s process for composing music and whether she had any specific rituals or procedures for assisting with her creations.
“When I create music, I see images, colors, movement, and landscapes,” Epple explained. “Music feels like a painting with moving layers of colors and textures, and I choose a timbre, melody or sound color to incorporate into the music by seeing and hearing how it fits with the other existing timbre tracks.
“When composing for film scores, the music is inspired by the images on the screen, the script, and the director’s vision. The music helps to tell the story and is a collaboration with the film director.
“I aspire to create music that illustrates all of our human experience. It is sometimes organic and serene and at other times, cathartic and pain-filled.”
Epple’s process involves a good deal of discipline and purposeful thought. “When I wake up in the morning, before I check emails or my calendar, I take time to be still and think about my intention for the day. What is important for me to do today? How can I accomplish that? What does the next new piece of music sound like? I can hear it at that point, and although the music will evolve as it materializes, it is usually based on that original impression.
“However, the most certain source of inspiration to compose new music is an upcoming deadline. When you are a professional musician who has been commissioned to compose for a production, you must learn to create music, whether you feel like doing it or not. It is similar to many successful authors who have a routine where they sit at their writing desk every day for a certain amount of time even if they don’t have any ideas of what to write. At other times, inspiration comes easily, and the notes or words flow freely and faster than they can be recorded.”
Epple’s intentions have also shifted over time, with a focus on producing positive content. “Especially as I have grown older, I want to create powerful and positive music in a hope to make the world a little more peaceful and loving through my music.”
PeaceVision
“PeaceVision is an online video platform that focuses on positive and inspiring content, aiming to help people achieve more peace in their lives,” Epple shared. “Created by Award-winning video producer, John Biffar, the platform’s content is designed to be free from negativity, violence, and politics, promoting positive change in areas like environment, health, wellness, and more. For decades, I have created music for many of John’s video productions, and we are also close friends.”
Learn more about PeaceVision in our May Naples Noteworthy feature on John Biffar.
Soaring Osprey
Featuring Kat Epple on flute and Chuck Grinnell on piano, inspired by the natural beauty of Southwest Florida.
The Power of Music
Music has been part of human culture from the dawn of time. But what is the purpose of music?
“I think the power of music is that it comes from the spirit of the musician and has the ability to touch another person’s spirit and emotion, as music can bypass language, culture and thought,” Epple answered. “It can inspire people to dance with joy or cry with heartbreak. Music can open a heart that is made of stone. That is a super-power that musicians have. Music changes the world.
“My intention, when I play, is to transport the listener to another place, emotion or dimension. Music has that power. It can create a peaceful mood, support healing, and inspire, or it can be angry, rough and painful. When I am performing on flute, my mind, body and spirit are fully engaged and working together.”
This dynamic synergy may be the key to why Kat Epple’s music is so engaging. She, herself, is an instrument, channeling through spirit more ancient or celestial melodies that awaken our own collective consciousness, primeval memories, and ascension paths into new dimensions.
Frequency and Vibration
Frequency and vibration are important, sacred aspects of all creation. Cymatics shows that certain sounds can create distinct geometric patterns in sand or water. Dr. Hans Jenny, a pioneer in cymatics, observed that when vowels from ancient languages like Hebrew and Sanskrit were pronounced, the resulting patterns in sand or other mediums resembled the written symbols of those vowels. This phenomenon has led some to suggest that these languages might have unique vibrational qualities tied to their ancient origins. These amazing phenomena suggest that there is something deeper going on when we hear sound, perhaps connecting us to Source. Other, more recent studies suggest that the Universe itself, and all the elements within it—stars, galaxies, etc., emit frequencies that together form a song. Through the process of sonification, NASA has produced recordings of these deep space songs for us to consider. Even our DNA is said to play like a song. We asked if Epple had any thoughts on these phenomena and theories?
“I certainly agree with Nikola Tesla, ‘If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency, and vibration’,” Epple replied. “I also think you will find more than the secrets of the universe, because vibration is everything that we experience as the real world. Quantum physics explains that all matter is fundamentally vibration, vibration is energy, and that is the reality that is all around us and all that we know.
“Well, that is lot to think about, but music is vibration, and as we learn to play music, we begin to create intuitively using vibration to find our own unique voice.”
Favorite Instruments
We asked Epple about her favorite instruments. “Probably the most important instruments that I began using in my composition would be synthesizers which, as I mentioned before, I began playing in 1973,” she replied. “My first synthesizer was an Arp 2600 which was programmed using rotary knobs, sliders, and patch cables.
“My ‘go to’ instrument is the concert flute. It is portable, self-contained (no amp needed), and versatile. On it, I can play everything from meditation music to rock and roll.
“I am also interested in musical instruments from other cultures and traditions around the world. I have traveled extensively around the globe, collecting and learning about unique indigenous flutes which I often incorporate in my albums and film scores. My presentation ‘Around the World with Flutes’ transports the audience to exotic locales with performances on a variety of interesting flutes made of wood, silver, tin, bamboo, clay, and bone.”
Calusa Flute Music
Though Epple has traveled the world in search of indigenous instruments and the people that made them, one of the most interesting is the Calusa Tribe right here in Southwest Florida.
“For thousands of years, all around the world, humans played music on instruments they made from materials they found in their surroundings,” she explained. “Almost every culture played a type of flute, including the indigenous people who lived here in Southwest Florida. In one of my lecture/concert presentations I talk about the Calusa Tribe, and play ‘Calusa-inspired’ music on flutes that are made of river grass and bone. My hope is that through music, I can help to tell their story, so we do not forget these amazing people who lived here, and once called Southwest Florida, ‘The Domain of the Calusa,’ their home.”
Valley of the Birds
Most Memorable Performance
“So many music experiences come to mind as memorable including this one,” Epple recalled. “I was invited to perform music for Robert Rauschenberg’s memorial services in several locations around the world. His memorial held at the Peggy Guggenheim Museum located on the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy, was remarkable.
“A sound amplification system was set up for me to play through as I performed music on the rooftop of the museum, with one speaker positioned towards the courtyard where the event was taking place, and another directed toward the front entrance of the museum so that guests could hear the music as they arrived in boats. From the canal, passersby could see me, a flute player on the rooftop, as the sound of my flute reverberated across the Grand Canal. An unexpected interactive concert ensued as gondoliers began to answer my flute phrases with their own operatic responses. Applause erupted from the vaporetti, kayakers, water buses, and water taxis, and most of them stopped to listen to the impromptu concert on the canal. Many of the guests arrived late because they were caught in the floating traffic jam that I had caused on the Grand Canal. My friend Bob Rauschenberg would have loved it.”
Advice for Success
Naples Noteworthy asked how Epple would advise someone who aspires to be a musician or composer, starting out. How was she able to be so successful and still keep a relatively low profile?
“Well, I would NOT say ‘just make your own music, don’t listen to what anybody else says, and never give up’. Instead, I would say: Learn as much about music and music production as you can. Hone your skills. Don’t take criticism personally, but instead, listen to it and consider it. Keep trying but also stay open to new concepts of how you might fit into a music career. Your perfect job may not be what you had originally visualized, but something different and equally exciting.
“I didn’t plan to be ‘low profile,’ but ended up having a large life, filled with an amazing variety of experiences partially because I was always pivoting, creating new ways to make a living by making music, and improvising a life that grew into many facets. As I pivot once again, I am in the process of writing my memoirs, and as I write, it reminds me of what an interesting life I have experienced.”
Future Prospects
“I am also writing a comedy screenplay based on real life events, about two young hippie musicians who drive from New York to San Francisco in her ramshackle van in 1979:
‘Road Trip’ (working title)
A spiritual music journey, comedy of errors, Rom-com, and slice of life in 1979 America.
“It is intended to be a Netflix-type 6 episode television series, and I am hoping to find a production deal for it and a publisher for my memoirs. Who knows, perhaps my next adventure might be as an author writing about my musical life?”
How Kat Epple Relaxes
What does Epple do for fun? As you might have guessed, it still involves music.
“I love to dance to almost any style of music, including classical, EDM, Funk, electronic, rock, hip hop, and ambient music,” she answered.
Kat Epple lives in Fort Myers and is seen here with her good friend, the late Robert Rauschenberg.
Extraordinary People
