Teacher Of The Year

Joe Chapman

2023 GMTA Teacher of the Year

I began my teaching career fifty years ago when at the age of sixteen I inherited a handful of piano students from my oldest sister who had just graduated from college. I’m not sure what, if anything, those students learned over the next couple of years, but I learned quite a bit about pedagogy, psychology, and perseverance. My teen years were enriched by participation in a well-established music program at Hixson TN High School, where I marched in the band, performed in musicals, and toured Europe as the choir accompanist. After high school I commuted to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where I earned my first of three degrees in piano performance. While at UTC, I continued teaching piano, served as pianist at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, and accompanied two college choral ensembles and the Chattanooga Boys Choir.

My graduate school experience at the University of South Carolina featured piano study with noted Canadian pianist, Raymond Dudley. My assistantship as the arranger and assistant director of Carolina Alive, the university’s pop choral ensemble, provided further opportunities to tour both domestically and to Central America and Africa. After completing my master’s degree, I returned home to Chattanooga where I balanced four part-time music positions for the next two years. In 1983, I accepted a full-time teaching appointment at the University of North Georgia - then North Georgia College - where I remain today. During my early years at North Georgia, I completed course work, recitals, and dissertation for a doctorate in piano performance at USC. Those were the hardest years of my life, career, and marriage [they don’t call it a terminal degree for nothing].

Over the past forty years at UNG I have taught music theory, conducted choirs, bands, and orchestra, and served as the instructor for a variety of piano-related courses. I am the founder and director of the All American Piano Celebration [now in its 36th year] which provides an opportunity for pianists of all levels to participate in the promotion of live performance of American piano music. Additionally, I have directed various church and community choirs, accompanied numerous soloists and ensembles, and presented over one hundred solo piano concerts for arts associations, schools, churches, and colleges throughout the state of Georgia. I have served the profession in a variety of roles, including a term as president of GMTA. I am currently the president of the Northeast Georgia Music Teachers Association and an advisor for the Georgia Musicale Group. My wife, Janey, and I have five adult children with diverse careers: firefighter, research analyst, mechanic, and two music teachers. My teaching goal – now as always – is to make a positive impact on the next student who walks through my studio door.