Researching Michael Chapman

In 2016, Chapman celebrated fifty years as a professional musician. Towards the end of his life he still played professionally and regularly toured in the UK, Europe and US.

His playing, characterized by an ability to weave long, sustained, singing lines and deliver powerful utterances, has influenced subsequent generations of British bassoonists. He studied at the Royal College of Music in London with Archie Camden and Vernon Elliott. After graduation, he joined the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 1959 as second bassoon to Martin Gatt. In 1962, he won an Arts Council scholarship and left the London Philharmonic to study with the great Italian bassoonist Enzo Muccetti at the Arrigo Boito Conservatory in Parma. Upon returning to England, he served as principal bassoonist of the newly formed Northern Sinfonia, where he stayed for almost 15 years. In 1978, he became principal bassoonist of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and he held this post for the next 21 years. He taught privately, and at University of York, and Trinity College of Music in London. He made the first recording of Elgar's Romance for bassoon and orchestra Op. 62 with the Northern Sinfonia conducted by Neville Marriner. Joubert's Bassoon Concerto was commissioned for Chapman. He founded his own reed-making company, applying a skill he learned from Muccetti.

Marsh was educated at Lichfield Cathedral School, Ellesmere College, the University of Leeds and the College of the Resurrection; and ordained deacon in 1963 and priest in 1964. After a curacy in Sunderland he was a Chaplain in the Royal Navy from 1968 until 1984. In that year he became Vicar of St Mark the Evangelist Church, Upper Hale, Farnham, Surrey, and in 1988 its Rural Dean, holding both posts until his appointment as Archdeacon.

He died in 2019, aged 79. He was survived by his wife, Bernadette.

He was born at Cloyne to property owner William Chapman and Mary. In 1840 he migrated to New South Wales, and on 11 December 1846 he married Catherine Shanahan, with whom he had four children. A successful oil trader, he served on Sydney City Council from 1860 to 1862 and from 1866 to 1900; he was also a Glebe alderman from 1866 to 1875 and from 1878 to 1893, and mayor from 1882 to 1884. In 1883 he was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as the member for Glebe. Defeated in 1885, he returned in 1887 as a Free Trader. He was re-elected in 1889, but defeated in 1891. Chapman died at Forest Lodge in 1906.