Summer 2013 - The American Viola Society

Career-Chapman
TT: Tom, I have heard you play, and you are
a truly gifted violist. All the more remarkable
when considered in the light of your varied
responsibilities and stellar career in teaching,
administration, and writing. I would like to
separate your performance career into two
broad areas: your performance responsibilities
and activities at Chapman University
and your tenure with the Carmel Bach
Festival. Let’s start with your performance
responsibilities and activities at Chapman
University.
TH: Chapman, which is thirty miles south of
downtown Los Angeles, was founded as
Hesperian College in 1861; it changed its name
to Chapman College in 1934 and to Chapman
University in 1991. I was hired in 1968, when
the on-campus student population was well
under one thousand. There were many offcampus
programs, like the World Campus
Afloat, and extensive offerings at military bases.
Currently, Chapman Orange campus enrollment
is just over seven thousand full-time undergrads,
not counting a separate off-campus but affiliated
school named Brandman University.
When I joined the Chapman College faculty,
the Music Department had eighteen
undergraduate music majors, two full-time
music professors (choral director, department
head/theory-composition), a religion/music
cross-appointment (Chapman has a Christian
religious affiliation), and two part-time (but
really full-time) adjunct professors (voice and
piano). A third full-time professor who taught
music history had just left, and I was the
replacement. However, there was a Chapman
Chamber Players ensemble, financed by a
musicians’ union “trust fund” arrangement,
strictly participant-grown, not college
sponsored. The violinist was Giora Bernstein
(former Boston Symphony Orchestra violinist),
who taught at nearby Pomona College (1967–
75); Norman Thompson, who was the parttime/full-time
pianist on the Chapman faculty,
and a local cellist who played in the Orange
County Philharmonic. This became the piano
quartet when I arrived, and, with a variable
violin and cello faculty, it was the backbone of
The Chapman Chamber Players for a long time.
The chamber players idea was a complete
natural for this small, heavily vocal (choir)
music department. Over the years, using the
expanded applied faculty, we gave a different
program on campus each semester as part of our
academic responsibility. We also went to high
schools and other venues letting people (high
school music teachers and students) know
Chapman existed and performing wherever it
could be arranged. We often gave vivid illustrations
in music classes, played at the student
union, etc. The chamber players was a very
effective outreach tool. We were also effective
within the faculty, as we liked to involve different
musicians to expand exposure to different
literature, and the faculty was eager to help. So,
we played, for example, the Schubert “Trout”
Quintet; Turina’s Il Tromento, for strings and
contralto; a lot of clarinet chamber music with
George Waln, the famous Oberlin clarinetist,
who joined our faculty in “retirement”; and a
host of other faculty favorites.
VOLUME 29 SUMMER 2013 ONLINE ISSUE
68