About the Chorale

Musical Director

William C. Davis, Keene Chorale Musical Director

William C. Davis is a native of Naugatuck, Connecticut. Mr. Davis was Choral Director and Music Coordinator of the Naugatuck High School from 1973-2001. He had an outstanding choral program of five choral ensembles involving over 240 students. He was also a tennis and soccer coach for twenty-two years. Mr Davis has earned degrees from Ohio Wesleyan University, New York University, and the University of Bridgeport, with additional study at the Hartt School of Music and the University of Connecticut.

Mr. Davis has served as a frequent adjudicator and has been a guest conductor at festivals in Portland, Durham, and Ellington Connecticut, and at the C.M.E.A. Southern Region Music Festival. Mr. Davis has been a guest choral conductor at Laurel Music Camp for nine different seasons. He conducted the Heritage Singers in Southbury, Connecticut for fourteen years. Under the direction of Mr. Davis, the Naugatuck High School Chamber Singers performed extensively throughout New England, Pennsylvania and Virginia, and Quebec and Nova Scotia, Canada. In addition, six European concert tours were made to Germany, Austria, France, Italy, and Ireland/England.

Since retiring in 2001, Mr. Davis directed the Naugatuck Community Chorus (2001-2005). He currently leads a church choir in Keene, NH, and is the director of the seventy-five voice male chorus, The Barnstormers. He sang Tenor with the Keene Chorale until assuming the position of Interim Director beginning with the 2010/2011 season, and continuing in that role for the 2011/2012 season. Mr. Davis accepted the Chorale’s offer of the Permanent Directorship on January 1, 2012. He also has a part-time furniture restoration/chair caning business, enjoys his 230 year-old family farm and especially enjoys time with his four grandchildren and wife, Cathy.

Accompanist

Vladimir Odinokikh, Keene Chorale Accompanist

Vladimir Odinokikh began playing the piano at the age of four and received his training at some of Russia’s finest music institutes, including the Tchaikovsky Conservatory and Gnessin Institute of Moscow. Competitions and festivals included the First Rachmaninoff International Piano Competition, the Russia National Competition (Prize), Chamber Music Competition of Soviet Compozers (First Prize), International Ponce-Scriabin Festival, First Bach Festival in Peru, and the Isadora Duncan Festival in England. His reputation as a soloist and chamber musician developed as he performed with leading Soviet artists and presitgious organizations such as the Rosconcert, and the Moscow Philharmonic.

Mr. Odinokikh has performed in the concert halls of Europe, South America, and the United States and with symphony orchestras in Russia and Mexico. He has also recorded extensively for radio and television in the USSR, Mexico, and the United States. He has received international acclaim and numerous awards for both his solo and collaborative performances, and his interpretation of works by world-famous composer Alfred Schnittke was greatly admiried by the composer. Mr. Odinokikh has taught at the Ippolitov-Ivanov College of Music in Moscow, was professor at the Alicia Urreta Center for the Arts in Mexico City, and professor and Artist-in-Residence at the Conservatorio de las Rosas, in Moreolios, Mexico, the Keene Institute of Music and Related Arts, and the Brattleboro Music Center.

In addition to maintaining a private piano studio, he is the Organist/Accompanist at the Keene Unitarian Universalist Church. Mr. Odinokikh was the fatured pianist at the Keene Chorale’s 30th Anniversary Celebration at which he played Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy as well as the Keene Chorale’s Spring 2011 concert where he performed two Rachmaninoff compositions. He is also a member of the New England Piano Trio.

History

The Keene Chorale was founded in the Spring 1979 by a handful of choristers and has now grown to an eighty-five voice choir. We are a community chorus composed of singers from many walks of life from Keene and the Monadnock region. The range and quality of sound have become broader and more confident with each passing season. Our concerts are the result of a love of singing and hard work. Three of our founding members are still active members and sing with the Chorale today.

For over three decades, the Keene Chorale has been delighting its audiences by performing the best of choral music for the enjoyment of those who sing and those who listen. The Chorale’s first program was a great indication of what was to come – Benjamin Britten’s contemporary setting of Rejoice in the Lamb, an eloquently religious poem by eighteenth-century poet, Christopher Smart, and Mozart’s Vesperae Solemnes de Confessore – two moving and memorable selections seldom heard in Keene.

Publicity photo of Keene Chorale members in 2006

Programs have ranged from Palestrina to Poulenc and Schubert to Stravinsky with stops along the way to visit Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Copeland, and MacDowell.

1999 In April 1999, the Keene Chorale performed Handel’s Messiah in its entirety as part of its 20th Anniversary Celebration. The April 2002 concert featured a tribute to Giuseppe Verdi which included selections from Nabucco, Il Trovatore and Aida, as well as The Testament of Freedom by Randall Thompson. In December 1999, the Chorale had the opportunity to record some wonderful music as part of the documentary Here Am I, Send Me: The Journey of Jonathan Daniels, which has aired on the Odyssey channel and PBS.

2001 The Chorale performed Another Night at the Opera in April 2001 featuring excerpts from Carmen and selections by Wagner, Donizetti, and Borodin. This concert was performed with full orchestra and mezzo-soprano and tenor soloists.

2002 On February 20, 2002, The Chorale, along with the Greater Keene Pops Choir and Chamber Singers of Keene, performed a PATRIOTIC Concert. Over $3,000 was raised with the money being donated to the Keene Fire Department to assist in purchasing a special air bag rescue system. The three singing groups performed some great American numbers including The National Anthem and The Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Concert photo from the Keene Chorale's 25th Anniversary Concert

2004 In April 2004, the Keene Chorale celebrated its 25th Anniversary with an outstanding performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s Elijah. More than 80 members sang this piece, including several new members as well as those who had performed with the Chorale for 5, 10, 15, 20 and, yes, 25 years of singing. At the conclusion of the performance, Charles laid down his baton so that he could enjoy more time with his family and spend more time with composing choral music. The Chorale began a new era in the fall of 2004 with Jane Hanson wielding the baton.

2009 To celebrate its 30th Anniversary of performing fine music in the Monadnock Region, the Keene Chorale presented Beethoven’s Mass in C and Choral Fantasy at a very special concert in April 2009, under the baton of Jane Hanson and featuring Vladimir Odinokikh at the piano.