Joy. If retiring Director of Orchestras Richard Babcock could describe playing music in one word, it would be joy.
For 39 years, Babcock has shared this joy with the Village School, the Upper School Orchestra, AP Music Theory students, Jazz Band and Pep Band. As he prepares to retire at the end of the 2025-26 school year, he reflects on his journey.
Before coming to Chadwick, Babcock earned his Bachelor of Music degree in jazz at the University of Utah and then taught at a K-12 independent school in Salt Lake City for three years. He moved to California to finish his master’s degree in music composition at the California Institute of the Arts. After working at a bookstore while earning his graduate degree for a year, he was hired at Chadwick by then Head of School Don Leavenworth in 1987.
Babcock quickly found a home on campus, where he lived for a total of 28 years. When he arrived, there was an Instrumental Music Program focused on Chamber Ensembles, but both the program and the facilities were undeveloped.
The auditorium at the time, in Babcock’s words, was very “primitive… [with] cinderblock-like walls. And so the acoustics were less than ideal.”
Through many conversations with students, teachers, and parents, Babcock brought a renewed energy to the school’s music program.
“Listening to people talking about what they wanted in music, what they wanted to do in music [helped me to figure out what the school needed],” says Babcock. “[And] what did they want? Well, they wanted the typical band experience.”
Despite small enrollments, Babcock decided to build a youth orchestra model, which contained all the essential parts of a band: strings, winds, and percussion. Material to teach this kind of model was not readily available, so Babcock got creative.
“I started creating materials myself,” Babcock explains. “Musical arrangements, exercises, the whole works, so I could teach beginners in an orchestra setting. Jazz Band and Pep Band came out of all this.… All the arrangements that I did for elementary school came out of those very primitive beginnings.”
Eventually, as Babcock says, “The program took on my personality.”
Since then, Babcock has seen the Chadwick community grow in innumerable ways. “Every performance, every class I met with, was successful and exciting and different,” explains Babcock. “That’s kind of the beauty of this place,” he continues. “The autonomy. Freedom to do what you think is right, where your heart is. The school fully supported me in the beginning.”
In the 39 years that Babcock has been at Chadwick, he has nurtured hundreds of students and built relationships with dozens of staff and faculty members.
“[Babcock] is such an important individual in my life,” says Upper School Orchestra member and composer Winston Lin ’26.
Associate Director of Admissions and Wavelength advisor David Bloom adds, “[Babcock] has taught me so much about music, about students, about life.”
“I cannot imagine this place without you’,” Upper School math teacher and head of Chadwick Improvisors Michael Cass says simply. “Your voice of wisdom and kindness … and just your joyful presence … has been amazing.”
Alumnus Ryan Chen ’23 sums it up nicely: “Thank you, Mr. Babcock, for everything you’ve done for us.”
Now looking back on his experience, in his last year as Director of Orchestras, Babcock reflects, “The one thing that stuck with me is the joy in music. I always come back to that: the joy that we get out of doing this with other people and just doing it, making music. So, just that three-letter word pretty much sums up where I’m coming from.”
He smiles. “And it’s been a joy being here.”
