Lemont, PA 16851
(814) 234-4407
dmaple@adelphia.net
I began building harpsichords and clavichords shortly after graduation from college in 1975, while employed as a biochemical research technician. 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 academic years I continued to produce instruments for my own use, and also carried out extensive work in the maintenance and repair of instruments by other 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 my long 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 frequently returned to the collection to examine various instruments. This opportunity to study the works of the great makers of the past has had a tremendous influence on my own work; each time I visit the collection I leave with an increased appreciation for the knowledge and craftsmanship of the old builders.