Life & Work with Clark Chaffee

Today we’d like to introduce you to Clark Chaffee.

Hi Clark, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I am 71, a semi-retired music educator, and still quite an active performing and conducting musician. I conduct the West Valley Wind Ensemble and the Surprise Pops Band. Both have performers who are primarily retirees who come from a broad variety of life experiences. What they have in common is a passion for music-making. When players leave the groups, most of the time it is either to move back up north to be closer to kids & grandkids or because their bodies have lost the strength to continue playing. In many cases hospice steps in when the horn gets put away for good. These are wonderful folks. Our audiences are enthusiastic about the concerts. You can see videos of recent performances if you go to my YouTube channel. There are many potential stories to be told about the musicians in these ensembles.

My music performance training and my extensive performing experience are on percussion instruments. I was one of the top 5 timpanists in the Chicago area for 20 years and keep a busy schedule as a jazz and Dixieland drummer. My early musical twin passions were classical and jazz. I’ve conducted 2 operas and dozens of musical theater productions. Early on I got my dream teaching job building an orchestra program. As part of my development teaching strings, I took seriously developing my string chops. Since moving to Arizona I’ve been principal timpanist in the Chandler symphony, drummer for the Sun City Stomperz, bass/vocal in Olde Folk (and other small groups with my wife, Ellie), principal viola in the Sun City Orchestra, and am currently playing bass in the Arizona Pro Musica and the Scottsdale Philharmonic.

I spend two days most weeks + lots of other time helping build orchestra programs in the Deer Valley (and nearby) schools. In Arizona, most folks who run school orchestras are band directors who have been told to have an orchestra class. Over the course of my 35 years developing school orchestra programs, with my percussion background, I have developed a curriculum that “non-native string players” find helpful in building quality string programs. For more about the Chaffee Core Musicianship Project and the rest of my background, please see clarkchaffee.com.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Mostly I’ve had lots of support and encouragement. However, early in my teaching career, there were folks who could not imagine how a percussionist could build strong string programs. Proof in the pudding – my last school before ‘retiring’ grew from 33 strings to 200 in the 15 years I was there. That string program and the entire music department earned national recognition from the US Department of Education, the National Association for Music Education, and others. I served for 5 years as head of the orchestra division for IMEA, was honored by the state American String Teachers Association, and was named Fine Arts Distinguished Alum from Northern Illinois University.

My graduates hold many leadership positions in music performance and music education as well as in medicine, and law, Ellie and I moved to Arizona to help her folks through the end of life. When I arrived I had very few connections in music or in education. A generally held opinion around here is that if you didn’t graduate from ASU then you really don’t know much. It has taken a while to begin to get established in education and pro-music circles. It is happening though. There is a growing interest in CCMP. I’m getting known as a high-quality performer and conductor.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
The most unique aspect of my work, and the reason that Alex Gilliam suggested that you contact me, is the Chaffee Core Musicianship Project. When I started my first full-time teaching job in 1979 I discovered that my new string students had significant struggles with reading rhythm notation so, over 2 years, I pulled out the parts of the percussion teaching I’d been doing that were more about reading rhythm than about building percussion chops. Rhythm Workshop has served me very well ever since. It is an important part of my success as a music educator.

With that in place I began to explore how to teach basic musicianship (musical knowledge) better than what my students were getting from just working on repertoire and technique development. Over time I developed a curriculum that fills in all the knowledge-development gaps in standard ensemble and private lesson pedagogy. As I later found out, even at the professional level performers have surprising gaps in their understanding of how music works at the most basic level. Happy to share more on that if you wish.

Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
My dad built the premier model-making company in the US in the 50s and 60s.

I loved going the ‘the shop’ to see amazing models in progress and to exhibits in progress on weekends. I loved to dance. Once I got started with music training it became a lifeline for me through some challenging times growing up.

Contact Info:

• Website: clarkchaffee.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/clark.chaffee
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/cchaffee125

Image Credits
Sun City Stomperz, Sun City Orchestra, and American Friendship Orchestra