Jen Chapin to Give March 1 Concert, Lecture
Student Government offers an afternoon lecture and evening performance by Jen Chapin
as part of its Celebration of Culture and Ideas Lecture Series.
Jen Chapin, daughter of singer-songwriter Harry Chapin, will speak at 12:30 p.m.
Tuesday, March 1, in the Turley Center Ballroom. The lecture is free and open to the
public. At 8 p.m. also in the Ballroom, Chapin will give a concert of her music. Tickets
for that event are free for FS students, faculty and staff and $5 for the general
public. For tickets, call (304) 367-4240.
Chapin’s songs reflect a diversity of experience in life and in music. A graduate
of Brown University, she has been a student of International Relations in Mexico and
Zimbabwe and a teacher of high school music in Brooklyn. Beyond her life in music,
Chapin’s dedication to the non-profit organization WHY (World Hunger Year) recently
earned her election as the Chair of its Board of Directors. She is especially committed
to WHY’s “Artists Against Hunger and Poverty” program, which works to forge relationships
between musicians and WHY’s network of innovative grassroots groups fighting hunger
and poverty across the country. She also serves on the board of Secret Smiles, Inc.,
and on the advisory board of “KIDS Can Make a Difference.”
Chapin was chosen as the winner of an emerging artist search by Oxygen Media. She
was honored by the USA Songwriting Competition for her song “Indispensable” with first
prize in the lyrics category and with the third prize overall among 30,000 entries.
Her earthy sound has been called “urban folk”-- an acknowledgment of both her family’s
fertile folk-rock legacy and of her own background study jazz and funk at the Berklee
College of Music.
