William "Chip" Madsen

After High School I attended USF as a music major and discovered Ii had a good voice. I met my wife there in my sophomore year, got married three years later and went to the University Illinois to earn my Master of Music degree in voice singing lead roles in all the operas. I taught at the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point (too cold!!!) for about four years and then traveled to study in Austria. I got an agent and a job at the Landestheater of Coburg Germany singing opera and musicals -- did the role of Curley in Oklahoma in German! Came back to the US and sang around the country in regional opera theaters before falling in love with urban children enrolled in the Newark Public Schools and quite music when I turned 40 since I wasn't at the Metropolitan Opera. I've been working with these kids ever since and loving it.

Have been the Executive Director of the Joseph Enright Melanoma Foundation since 2010 and am also their poster boy since being diagnosed with Stage IV Melanoma Cancer. so far, thanks to the great doctors at Memorial Sloan Kettering I'm doing very well and loving my new gig.

I loved band and orchestra even though I couldn't stand the director, Rudolph von Unruh. I remembered having a tough time in algebra though I did well in geometry until Ms. Kramer made it come alive. Unfortunately that was the year of the strike and I lost everything during a time when classes were a joke. That's when I decided to become a music major. I never got leading roles in high school, but made up for that in college and in the world of theater and opera. I loved listening to Gwen Gatlin sing solos in choir especially the spiritual, "Mary had a baby."My best friend was Danny Howard, or BC as he was known. We both competed for 1st chair in the trombone section and it was shared between us throughout our junior and senior years.