Artistic Director & Conductor, Danica A. Buckley
Danica A. Buckley has been Artistic Director and Conductor of Cape Cod Chorale since 2014, conducting repertoire ranging from Bach to Sondheim. Especially notable was the 2016-17 masterworks season when the Chorale performed Vivaldi’s Magnificat and Gloria as well as Haydn’s Te Deum with chamber orchestra.
Since 2005, she has been Artistic Director and Conductor of the Choral Art Society of the South Shore. For the 200th birthday of Mendelssohn and the 50th anniversary of the Choral Art Society in 2009, the chorus performed a sold-out performance of Mendelssohn’s St. Paul (jointly with Braintree Choral Society, also under Ms. Buckley’s direction). Other repertoire has included everything from the Beatles to Mozart’s Requiem, Magnificat (Bach), Mass in Time of War (Haydn), and Dona Nobis Pacem (Vaughan Williams), all with the Choral Art Society Orchestra.
She is also Music Director of the Simmons College Concert Choir and Music Director at First Parish Brewster, a Unitarian Universalist church. (From 2005-2010, she was Music Director at First Parish in Brookline.)
In response to the Boston marathon bombing in April 2013, she gathered 500 choral singers and four conducting colleagues to perform Brahms’ Requiem at MIT six days later to comfort the community and raise money for the One Fund. The concert raised $15,000.
With various choral groups, she has conducted abroad in London and Braintree England and in Sarteano, Italy.
While earning a MA in English at NCSU in Raleigh in 1987, she founded The Tompkins Chorale comprised of fellow graduate students, her own undergraduate students, and professors. During this time, she also studied voice at Meredith College and opera at Brevard Music Center. She was also soprano soloist at Pullen Memorial Church, under the direction of Dr. Michael Hawn.
In 1988, she began conducting musicals at Norwich University, from which she had earned a BA in English in 1985. She remained in Vermont until 1995, conducting the Northeast Kingdom Chorus, the Mad River Chorale (which she founded), and several musicals in the community and at Green Mountain Valley School, where she also founded the chorus. She also performed as a soprano with the Vermont Opera Theater.
In 1995-96, she taught English at Mercersburg Academy (PA). She was guest soprano soloist, and asst. conductor of the choir, and asst. coach for the ski team. From 1996-2002, she taught English and music at Cape Cod Academy, founded the Osterville Community Chorus (in which two current members of Cape Cod Chorale sang!), and served as soprano soloist and asst. conductor at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church.
Ms. Buckley holds the MM in Choral Conducting from Boston Conservatory, under Dr. William Cutter. At Westminster Choir College, she studied conducting with Dr. Andrew Megill and vocal health science with Dr. Scott McCoy.
Ms. Buckley is a member of Chorus America, the American Choral Directors Association, the National Collegiate Choral Conductors Association, and the Unitarian Universalist Musicians’ Network.
In February, 2018, Ms. Buckley will conduct the mixed (SATB) chorus for the All Cape and Islands Music Festival. She is especially pleased by this appointment, as she sang in All Cape in 1980 while a student at Nantucket High School.
When not conducting, she is an adjunct professor of English composition and literature at Wentworth Institute of Technology and music history at Simmons College.
Accompanist Cathy Bonnett
Cathy Bonnett has been the Chorale’s talented, sensitive and versatile accompanist since 2000. In a lifelong musical career she was musical director of US Coast Guard Base Chapel for 22 years and has directed several church choirs, currently the Mashpee Congregational UCC church choir. In addition, Cathy has been involved in musical theatre activities for more than 25 years.