About
Don Vappie, musician / composer / educator, is the 2021 Steve Martin Banjo Prize Winner and was inducted into the Banjo Hall of Fame in 2022. In addition, he has received awards for his contributions to the preservation of New Orleans Creole Culture through music and film. He has produced 7 of his own albums, co-produced and starred in a PBS documentary, performed as a featured artist with orchestras on movie and television soundtracks, and at concerts and festivals around the world. Vappie’s highly regarded unique and original tenor banjo style is equal only to his love of his Creole heritage and tradition.
Choosing to remain in his hometown, New Orleans, was the choice Don Vappie made in 1974. Immediately after filling in on a gig with the great Peggy Lee, she offered him the guitar chair. He politely declined. So, she wrote and gave him an open invitation signed on the hotel stationary, “if you ever want to play …”
“Looking back, I think that was a defining moment in my life,” says Vappie. Though at the time, as he played in cover bands performing the popular music of that period, he evolved an interest in the rich history of music and tradition in Southeast Louisiana, particularly New Orleans.
Vappie was born into an extended family of musicians, some of whom are quite prominent. He began piano lessons at 6 years of age and played trumpet in school bands starting in fifth grade. By high school his desire was to play bass. It was 1 year later when the band they’d formed lost the guitar player that Don started guitar. “I’d watched those guys play and remembered some of the shapes. So, I sat down at the piano and figured out the notes in the chords and then looked at how I could play those notes within the reach of the fingers of my left hand on the fret board of the guitar.” That’s how Vappie explained it to the great Dr. John during a recording session for Disney’s remake of their classic movie, Jungle Book.
