RICHARD CHIARAPPA is the founding music director of the West Hartford Symphony Orchestra. He was formerly the music director of the Bristol Symphony Orchestra from 1991-2002. Mr. Chiarappa is also the resident conductor of the summer Scholar-Athlete Games Orchestra, located in Kingston, RI on the University of Rhode Island campus.
Chiarappa’s most recent composition is “The Gettysburg Address” for orchestra and narrator, composed in honor of the 2009 Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial. Prior to that in 2008 Chiarappa wrote “Noah’s National Language,” a work for orchestra, chorus, narrator and actor that was commissioned by the Noah Webster House Museum and was premiered in October of 2008 to celebrate Webster’s 250th birthday. Two of his “novelty pieces” were premiered during the 2007 and 2008 seasons. One of them, entitled "Romp for Symphony Orchestra and (Celebrity) Triangulist," recently performed by the Manassas Symphony Orchestra of Virginia, can be seen on YouTube. That same piece is now available in concert band and string orchestra arrangements. In 2002 Chiarappa wrote an arrangement in four distinct musical styles for orchestra entitled "Happy, Happy Birthday" that was specially written for the "birth" of the WHSO. All are available for purchase or rental and are published by Clear Mud Publications. They can be heard on the web at www.cmpub.com.
During the summer of 2000, Chiarappa was commissioned by the Institute for International Sport to compose the theme music for the Scholar-Athlete Games. The piece, "Paean to The Scholar, The Athlete and The Artist" for orchestra and chorus, received its premiere at the 2001 Summer Games, and continues as theme music for the Games, always performed as the final number in the Games’ Closing Ceremonies.
In 2001 Mr. Chiarappa founded the Internet business, “newmusicals.com,” intended to promote new works in musical theatre internationally. His present work for musical theatre, “The Silver Whistle,” is a musical adaptation of the play of the same name written by Robert E. McEnroe that ran on Broadway in 1948. His musical farce based on a Mark Twain short story, “Brandenburgh,” was named a semi-finalist in the 2001 McLaren Comedy Play Writing Competition in Texas. In 1997 a CD and professional VHS were made of his musical, “Lincoln & Booth.” Other works in musical theatre as composer include a collaboration with playwright, Terry Ortwein, on the “cult” musical farce, “The Best Kept Secret of World War II,” and a musical geared for high schools entitle “Hoop,” co-written with his wife, Martha, now published by Encore Publishing in Tallahassee, Florida.
Mr. Chiarappa has been a faculty member of Kingswood-Oxford School in West Hartford, since 1979, where he is Director of the Chamber Jazz Singers and the Kingswood-Oxford Jazz Ensemble. He has also been musical director/pianist of the Madison Beach Club’s annual “Follies” since 1981. Mr. Chiarappa is a member of ASCAP and the Dramatists Guild, MENC and CMEA, as well as the American Symphony Orchestra League and Conductors Guild. He resides with his wife in West Hartford. They have two grown daughters.