The Director
Jim Chamblee led Chowan’s music department through countless changes
Recalls many
experiences
during three
decades as
head of
Chowan's
music
department
Completed
European
tour with
WC Men’s
lee Club
With the baton barely dry in his hand, Jim
Chamblee began his career at the tiny two-year
college in 1959, nursed it through growing pains to
its heyday as a two-year school, witnessed the
student crunch of the late 70s and 80s and
redesigned the program into a four-year major.
“When 1 first came in the fall of ‘59 . . . the
department consisted of. . . me,” he remembers.
“My wife taught piano part-time but all the other
courses were taught by me We had three music
majors, whom I inherited from the previous faculty,
the student body was about three hundred and 1
think we had about thirty on the faculty.”
Bom in Raleigh, the son of a Baptist preacher,
Chamblee began singing at an early age both in
grammar school and in the church choir that his
mother directed. Dismissing any kudos with
modesty, Chamblee is reluctant to tell that in
addition to participating in choral groups at
Burlington’s Williams High School, he also served
as President of the student body, co-captain of the
football team, member of the basketball & baseball
teams, sports editor of the school aimual and
member of the state-champion affirmative debating
team.
Originally enrolling at UNC-Chapel Hill to
study physics on a scholarship, Chamblee recog
nized music as his calling and switched his major as
a sophomore. After receiving his A.B. in Music-
Voice he completed his M.A in Music Education at
the Teacher’s College of Columbia University in
New York before teaching at Gardner-Webb for one
year.
In 1963, he took a three-year leave from
Chowan to complete his Ph.D. at UNC. One of
Chamblee’s personal high points came during the
surmner of 1966. Talking his way into joining a
month-long European tour with the UNC Men’s
Glee Club, with whom he had sung as an under
graduate, Chamblee learned the tenor part and
signed on as assistant director
“We toured a good deal of the European
continent including England and Wales, but the
biggest thrill came after we passed through the "iron
curtain’ to Leipzig, East Germany. There we
visited St. Thomas Church, where Bach was
directing music when he died. We got to go into
the chiu"ch, which was essentially as it was when
Bach was there, and sang in the choir loft. I think
that was probably as good a thrill as a musician
could have.”
The balance of the tour was not uneventful.
Crossing and recrossing the Communist border
many times, including an uneasy east-to-west trip
through “Checkpoint Charlie,” Chamblee recalled
how often nerves were shattered. Winning prize
money during an international competition in Wales
allowed the group to avoid using personal funds for
traveling expenses as tour fiinds became exhausted.
On their way back to North Carolina, the group
appeared on the televised Ed Sullivan Show along
with the famous 60s singing group. The Dave Clark
Five.
Chamblee recalls, with some sadness in his
voice, that he ot\en lost touch with students after
Chowan. “Most of the time I just had students for
two years and then they were gone.”
“I do recall one male vocalist in particular
though, who joined the army after Chowan and
began smgmg with a group of enlisted men called,
•The Singing Sergeants.’ He went on to musical
vangelism and later attended seminary.”
He reminisces about an outstanding student,
a Elks, from Lasker, was the best natural
talent I ever had,” Chamblee says. “She had
some with me as a high school student but
intention of attending college. During fall
n she appeared and wasn’t sure of what
d to do, so we registered her. She went
to Elon College, finished her degree and
me teacher”
Chamblee’s favorite engagements
mvolvedVling a touring choir to sing in the
Baptist P%ion of the World’s Fair in Knoxville.
“We took the only available May date, which was
after graduation, and arranged a choir tour for that
week We sang our way out and back. It worked
out so well, that we started doing it [spring tours]
from then on. The churches, where we sang, put
us up for the night, fed us and sometimes offered
us donations toward traveling expenses.”
With a smile, Chamblee recalled a performance
at the Baptist State Convention in Raleigh. “It was
in Memorial Auditorium in Raleigh, which is this
huge place. We came out on stage to sing and the
acoustics in there were such that when you were
on stage you really could not hear the person next
to you. We had a group of about twenty singers
and were singing in mixed quartets arranged by
soprano, alto, tenor, base, so you weren’t standing
next to a person singing your part. So when we
started singing the first note—we were singing a
cappella—I could see a little bit of a panic because
they couldn’t hear each other. But, they kept
g( 'ng, regrouped, really listened and it sounded
good.
“We almost got arrested once,” he chuckled.
Visiting the empty chapel at Duke University while
on tour one Saturday morning, the group wandered
to the front, got a little pitch and sang a short Latin
motet. I don’t think the receptionist was too
pleased since we hadn't asked permission. But the
students wanted to do it, and I said ‘Why not?’”
Outside Chowan, Chamblee “blew off steam”
by playing tuba in the Potecasi Philharmonic, a
local quartet that performs regularly in the area.
Chamblee hopes to join another similar group when
he retires to Smithfield, N.C.
“I'm hoping to find some kind of adjunct work
around Smithfield,” Chamblee notes. “I’m not
Jim Chamblee,
retiring chair of the
Department of Fine
Arts, (right) is seen
in a familiar pose
as he conducts a
rehearsal for the
Chowan College
choir
ready for a full retirement.” Tired of commuting,
Chamblee looks forward to joining his wife. A
former coimselor in Chowan’s Upward Bound
program, Carla Chamblee has served as a coimselor
at Johnston Commimity College for the last five
years.
It is doubtful that too many Chowan profes
sors adopt a student as their own child, but the
Chamblees did just that. Carla Chamblees’
counseling introduced her to a young student from
South Carolina. “Denice came to Chowan from an
orphanage in South Carolina, where she had lived
from about the age of three, to learn the printing
trade. We came to the conclusion that she didn’t
need to be living in a dorm and we had plenty of
room since some of our children had left. She
became our daughter. When she turned twenty-one,
we completed an adult adoption.”
Parents to Karen, Kyle, Duane, Denice and
Philip, the Chamblees also have five grandchildren.
“Jim has been well respected and very much
appreciated in the college and commimity and we
will miss his special gifts,” says Carole Nicholson,
assistant professor of music.
Following the spring band and choir concert,
during a reception honoring Chamblee, faculty and
friends of the fine arts department announced the
establishment of the endowed James Monroe
Chamblee Special Recognition in Music Award.
The armual award will be given to a music student
who has shown outstanding achievement in music
scholarship or musical performance and who has
made a significant contribution to the music
department and college through such scholarship or
performance.
9
Members and friends of the “Class of ‘97" enjoy themselves at the Senior Banquet and
Candlelighting Ceremony held May 7 in the President’s Dining Room.
Page 14 — CHOWAN TODAY, Junkof?