UVM conductor, music professor Chapman dies

By Mike Donoghue

James G. Chapman, retired University of Vermont Choral Union
conductor and longtime music professor, has died. He was 83.

Chapman of Underhill had been in failing health and died Tuesday
morning at the Vermont Respite House in Williston, UVM music
professor David Neiweem said.

In 1968, Chapman was the founder and director of the UVM Choral
Union, which provided its members a chance to produce high levels
of music. It was mostly composed of students and faculty, but also
included housewives, lawyers and other Vermonters. Besides regular
concerts throughout Vermont, they often visited hospitals and
nursing homes to sing carols at Christmastime.

“They were best known for high-quality performances of
contemporary 20th century music, and they were extremely well known
for Jim’s work,” Neiweem said.

“He was a man who reflected his love for the complexity of coral
music. He was demanding and exacting,” said Neiweem, who was hired
in 1982 by Chapman when he was chairman of the UVM music
department.

He said Chapman “was able to offer generations of listeners and
singers access to top-notch performances of the greatest choral
music in the Western tradition.”

Chapman teamed up with UVM English professor Betty Bandel in
February 1973 to release a long-play record album “Vermont Harmony”
that was a look at “fuging tunes, anthems and secular pieces” by
Vermont composers between 1790 and 1810. It helped spread the word
that Justin Morgan, known best as a breeder of Morgan horses, also
was a composer.