Greenwich School named beneficiary of Josh Chambers Memorial Arts Scholarship
GREENWICH, N.Y. » A new arts scholarship has been established in memory of Greenwich High School and Skidmore College graduate Josh Chambers.
Greenwich High School has been named beneficiary of the Josh Chambers Memorial Arts Scholarship. With a total of $25,000, a $1,500 scholarship will be awarded each year to a Greenwich High School senior who actively participated in music or drama at the high school and plans to pursue either music or drama at some level in college.
Chambers excelled in music and drama at Greenwich High School. He performed numerous classical guitar solos and won the NYSHS music competition as the best classical guitarist in each of his four years in high school. He capped off his high school classical guitar experience by winning the Skidmore College Filene Music scholarship competition in 1994.
In high school, Chambers was lead guitarist, singer, and songwriter for the band Throw Down Bouquet, which featured Dave Bengle, Dan Morse, Doug Idelman, Justin Baker and Ali Henderson. The band issued its first CD “Gym Class Hero” in 1994.
Additionally, during his high school career Chambers was continually active in drama having had important or lead roles in Oliver Twist, Grease, Up the Down Staircase, South Pacific and Flowers for Algernon.
At Skidmore College, he continued his theatre and music journey. Chambers played numerous solo classical guitar concerts as well as accompanying the college president and playing guitar at various fundraising events across the country. He eventually became a theatre major and acted in and directed many plays at Skidmore.
After graduation, Chambers and other Skidmore theatre majors formed the avant garde theatre company Fovea Floods. They performed many plays in upstate New York before moving to Brooklyn and performing offBroadway plays, normally in the East Village. This lasted successfully for many years.
Chambers was then accepted at California Institute of the Arts to pursue a master of fine arts degree in directing. He directed several plays at CalArts, always with a strong music presence. Upon graduation he produced plays in Los Angles, Boulder, Austin and San Diego.
During the course of his life, Chambers wrote more than 700 songs and directed hundreds of plays.
The arduous journey of navigating four years at Greenwich High School was not entirely smooth. Despite being qualified in his junior year, Chambers was not selected for the National Honor Society because a few of the committee members felt that he did not “color inside the lines enough,” according to a press release from scholarship organizers.
“Josh may have colored outside the lines,” the release continued, “but the colors were vivid.”
The next year he was selected and, thanks to the encouragement of a friend, decided to accept the honor.
It is anticipated that the first Josh Chambers Memorial Arts Scholarship will be given to a Greenwich High School student at the June 2021 Senior Awards Night.