Schuyler Garrison Chapin (February 13, 1923 – March 7, 2009) was a General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera, and later Commissioner of Cultural Affairs for New York City during the administration of Mayor Rudy Giuliani. He famously noted of his work, that: "There is nothing simple in the world of the arts" (New York Times, 1995).
Schuyler Garrison Chapin was born on February 13, 1923. He was the son of Lindley Hoffman Paul Chapin (1888–1938) and Leila Howard (née Burden) (1899–1967).
Chapin was a ninth generation descendant of Captain Philip Pieterse Schuyler (1628–1683), who settled in New Netherland around 1650, with his brother David Pietersen Schuyler. Chapin's maternal pedigree extends to include: Priv. Isaac Kingsland (1710–1803); Third Battalion, of the New Jersey Continental Line, who married 3 Jun. 1741 Joanna (née Schuyler); Chapin's sixth great grandparents removed. Their granddaughter Catherine Schuyler (née Kingsland) married Capt. Oliver Garrison; Chapin's fourth great grandparents removed; parents of Commodore Cornelius Kingsland Garrison; whose granddaughter Cornelia Garrison (née Van Auken) married Lindley Hoffman Chapin; paternal grandparents of Schuyler G. Chapin.
Through the Schuyler and Van Rensselaer families of New York and New Jersey, Schuyler G. Chapin was the third cousin sixth removed of Elizabeth "Betsy" (Schuyler); wife of First U. S. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton; daughter of Maj. Gen. Philip John Schuyler, Jr., who was one of four major generals named by Congress in 1775, and third cousin fifth removed of Chapin. Major General Schuyler served instrumentally in the Burgoyne Campaign (1777).
His paternal side descends in the ninth generation from early English Puritan Deacon Samuel Chapin who arrived in America, from Devonshire, between 1633–1635, and was later one of the founders of Springfield, Massachusetts.
While still a teenager, in the 1930s, he began accompanying millionaire widow and former actress Eleanor Belmont to the Metropolitan Opera. He attended the Millbrook School in 1940, where he was very active in the performing and musical arts, however, he did not graduate from high school, nor college, but was the recipient of numerous university honors. He became a pilot during World War II.
By 1953, he had become Jascha Heifetz's tour manager. Around this time, he also befriended Leonard Bernstein, several of whose live recordings, including the Grammy award-winning Beethoven's Birthday (1970), Chapin produced.
In 1963, he was named vice-president of Lincoln Center and co-founded the Film Society of Lincoln Center in 1969. In 1972, he accepted the position of General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera after the previous GM, Göran Gentele, died in a car accident before the opening of his first season. Chapin stayed on at the Met for four years, subsequently becoming Dean of Columbia University's Graduate School of the Arts. During Chapin’s tenure at Columbia, enrollment doubled, and he raised $7 million and strengthened the fine-arts curriculum. He remained there for 10 years, being kept on as Dean emeritus. He then moved on to the job of vice president of Steinway and Sons before becoming the cultural affairs commissioner of New York City from 1994 to 2001.
In 2002, he was awarded France's Légion d'honneur, 82 years after his father; L. H. Paul Chapin, a World War I liaison officer between General Pershing and Marshall Foch, received the same honor. He also wrote several books, including Leonard Bernstein: Notes From a Friend and was also a Board Member Emeritus In Memoriam at The Center for Arts Education.
On March 15, 1947, he married his first wife, Elizabeth Steinway (1925-1993). Steinway was the daughter of Theodore E. Steinway and Ruth (née Davis) Steinway. The Steinways were descendants of Henry E. Steinway (the founder of Steinway and Sons). Chapin's best man was his uncle by marriage, Francis Biddle, the former United States Attorney General. Together, they had four sons:
After his wife died in 1993, Chapin met and married his second wife, divorcee Catia Zoullas Mortimer, in 1995. Mayor Rudy Giuliani officiated the marriage at Gracie Mansion, New York City.
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