Paul Chapin

By Donald Gilpin

Paul Chapin, longtime music teacher, then acting principal at Riverside Elementary School in Princeton, and then head of the Newark Boys Chorus School for the past four years, took the reins last week as president and CEO of Capital Harmony Works (CHW), a music education nonprofit that provides instruction and performance opportunities for young people of Trenton.

Chapin emphasized the importance of youth development through music. “Putting kids together to work together, to grow together, to live together towards a noble end, creating art for the community through music, is an essential component of our work,” he said.

Chapin succeeds Carol Burden as leader of CHW, which is made up of three organizations which merged last year: Trenton Music Makers, Trenton Children’s Chorus, and Music for the Very Young.

Before his tenure in Newark, Chapin “was known and cherished by the Princeton community as the 35-year music teacher at Riverside Elementary School, and then when the need arose the acting principal of that school for two years,” Burden wrote in a farewell letter to friends and supporters of CHW.

She described Chapin’s “rich background in choral conducting and music direction” and noted that he has also served as content instruction specialist to undergraduates at Princeton University as well as providing consultancy and professional development in educational assessment. He is also the author of many publications.

Chapin praised his predecessor’s leadership over the past eight years. “I’m the recipient of a very well organized, strong, and happy organization,” he said. “She really moved all these nonprofits forward. I think the mission was well founded for all three of these groups, but she organized them in terms of governance, finance, and operation.”

Chapin and Burden worked together in the past when Chapin was at Riverside and Burden was working with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra. They have known each other for more than 20 years. “We’ve always had great respect for each other and each other’s work,” said Chapin.

Chapin is happy to be returning to Mercer County. He pointed out that CHW also has some roots in both Princeton and Trenton, with the Children’s Chorus having been founded by a group of Princeton residents working out of Nassau Presbyterian Church as an outreach to the Trenton community and Trenton Community Music School, which later became Trenton Music Makers, having also been started by Princetonians.

“My work has been in Newark for the past four years, and that has been wonderful and exciting and a learning experience for me,” he said. “But it’s exciting to me on a personal level that I feel as if I’m coming home a bit.”

In her letter, Burden expressed her gratitude for the opportunity to “witness the growth of the young people” who take part in CHW and her appreciation for the community’s support “of these amazing young musicians and their families.”

She went on to describe CHW as “an extraordinarily vibrant part of the New Jersey arts education community, and an example to youth choirs and orchestras throughout the United States.”

Chapin, in a July 24 phone conversation, expressed his commitment to the CHW mission. “We’re looking to connect with youth who deserve the connection, youth that may not have these opportunities in the typical ways through school or after-school programs,” he said. “We’re looking to engage them in very positive, very forward-thinking activities, and music is the vehicle.”

Applauding the merger that joined Trenton Music Makers (operating at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Trenton), Trenton Children’s Chorus (based at West Trenton Presbyterian Church in Ewing), and Music for the Very Young (which happens in a number of public, private, and charter schools), Chapin stated, “The point is to engage kids at the earliest possible time, and move those kids as they grow, into choral or orchestral performing ensembles.”

Though Chapin, just starting his second week on the job at CMW, was reluctant to delineate specific future initiatives or plans at this point, he was clear and forthright about the larger goals of CHW.

“Moving forward, the excitement is broadening the reach of these individual programs, broadening the reach to both new and returning students, growing the number of kids we reach, and also broadening the community connections,” he said.

“We know that if we engage youth in a positive activity they have far less chance of connecting with things that are negative,” he continued. “And that’s the responsibility of this community — not just parents, not just schools, but the community as a whole. We have partners at the county level, at the city level, and at the corporate level, and we are responsible for providing those opportunities for the youth of this city. We should be leading the way, and that’s exciting.”

Highlighting the compelling connection of opportunity with responsibility, Chapin pointed out some of the possibilities ahead for Capital Harmony Works. “Now more than ever, with the divisiveness around the country, we have the opportunity and therefore the responsibility to bring these programs to kids who need these programs,” he said.