BOARD OF DIRECTORS – 2024–2025
Dear Friends,
It is with great pleasure that I invite you to celebrate the Carolina Master Chorale’s 42nd season, as well as Dr. Tim Koch’s 25th anniversary as our Music Director and Conductor. I know I speak for our audience and members alike when I praise the incredible programs, direction, growth, and accomplishments the CMC has achieved under Dr. Koch’s brilliant musical leadership and expertise. Our 2024/2025 season will be nothing short of spectacular. Dr. Koch has prepared a season like none other!
As a non-profit organization, the CMC depends on the continued support of our community and our members. Did you know that not only are our talented singers all-volunteer, but they also make an annual financial pledge to support on ongoing administrative expenses of the CMC? I am so very proud of their enormous commitment! Won’t you please consider making a matching gift to any one of our members’ pledges this year? Simply contact any member (or you may contact our office) and let them know you wish to match their pledge. As you purchase your season or individual concert tickets, please consider rounding up to make a donation to the CMC Annual Fund. With the addition of our youth chorale, under the superb direction of Sara Morey, there is a greater need for the CMC to grow in sustainability. The CMC strives to provide the highest possible level of chorale performance to our community, and we need your help. Every contribution is greatly appreciated.
If you appreciate Tim as much as we do, we would love for you to honor his significant contribution to the CMC with a financial gift to the chorale in his name. Please designate on your check in the memo line “25th anniversary”. To commemorate Dr. Koch’s 25th anniversary, the CMC will be planning some surprises throughout the season. Stay tuned!
The Carolina Master Chorale extends a huge and heartfelt thank you to all of our generous sponsors. If you would like to learn about becoming a sponsor this year – perhaps sponsoring a particular concert, musical piece, our newly formed Carolina Youth Chorale, or any other of the many other sponsorship opportunities – please contact me. I would be happy to discuss the possibilities and work with you to make it happen.
It has been said, gratitude is the music of the heart. I share with you my deepest thanks.
Judi Adams, President
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Judi Adams
President
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Cindy Verost
Vice-President
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Barbara Mousaw
Treasurer
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John Scheide
Secretary
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Penny Reed
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Audrey Farrell
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Donna McElveen
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Terri Springs
Ex-Officio Board Members
Dr. Timothy Koch
Music Director
Norma Culler
Board Member Emeritus
THE ARTISTIC AND ADMINISTRATION STAFF
TIMOTHY KOCH, DMA
Music Director and Conductor
Timothy Koch enters his 25th season as Music Director and Conductor of the Carolina Master Chorale in 2024-2025. His tenure has been marked by notable growth in artistic achievement, extensive touring, acclaimed performances of masterworks for chorus and orchestra, opera productions, commissioning of numerous major new works, and expanded educational programming.
Koch led the CMC in tour performances of Italy in 2003, Denmark, Germany, and the Czech Republic in 2005, at New York's Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in 2007, Spain in 2008, Costa Rica in 2010, Finland, Estonia, and Russia in 2012, and Montreal and Québec City in Québec, Canada in the summer of 2018. In June of 2024 the choir performed in Portugal.
In South Carolina, Koch and the CMC have presented acclaimed performances of Bach's St. John Passion, the Mozart and Brahms Requiems, Mendelssohn's Elijah, and Beethoven's Mass in C. Koch has prepared the CMC for performances of Verdi's Requiem and Stabat Mater, the Poulenc Gloria, Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast, Schoenberg's A Survivor from Warsaw, Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music and Orff’s Carmina Burana, among others. The CMC performed Robert Palmeri’s Misa Tango for the 2019 Southern Division Conference of the American Guild of Organists. A performance of Bernstein's Chichester Psalms with the Long Bay Symphony inspired Myrtle Beach Herald reviewer William Hamilton to write, "The appropriately named Carolina Master Chorale is a treasure..."
Koch and the CMC first embraced opera in 2006 with a full concert performance of Bizet's Carmen. The Chorale followed with semi-staged productions of Verdi's La Traviata in 2008, Carmen again in 2013, and Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance in 2017. Following the Verdi performances, William Hamilton again wrote for the Herald, "The remarkable Carolina Master Chorale made listeners completely unaware this is a volunteer group and not a full-time professional music ensemble."
The CMC has also enjoyed many fruitful artistic collaborative projects. During Koch’s tenure, the Chorale has forged performing relationships with the Long Bay Symphony, South Carolina Philharmonic, and New Amsterdam (New York) Orchestras, composer Carlisle Floyd, conductors Eph Ehly, Charles Jones Evans, Nicholas Smith, Donald Neuen, Robert Page, Donald Nally, David Rayl, André Thomas, Viennese baritone, Benno Schollum, and American singers David Bankston, Ann Benson, Joe Chappel, Kirstin Chavez, Adrienne Danrich, Emily Hindrichs, Shelly Jameson, Jeffrey Jones, Mark Vitale, and Arianna Zukerman. Locally, the CMC has shared productions with Conway's Theatre of the Republic, Litchfield Dance Arts, and the Myrtle Beach School of Performing Arts.
Though the Carolina Master Chorale maintains a very active annual performance calendar, the ensemble also enjoys regular appearances for area schools, civic clubs, and community functions. This season, the CMC presents its Third Annual Carolina Master Chorale/Coastal Carolina University Vocal Competition. Winners receive scholarships and solo performances with the Chorale.
As founder/music director of the professional Carolina Chamber Chorale, Koch inspired widespread artistic achievement. Together, they can be heard on 12 commercial recordings on the Albany and Naxos/Milken Archive labels. Koch’s work with the ensemble has been lauded by Gramophone Magazine: "a wonderful compendium of finely-judged performances"; the Charleston Post and Courier: "You have not heard anything like this. Ever." and American Composer Samuel Adler: "the finest professional choir in America."
Koch holds degrees from Illinois Wesleyan University and the University of Illinois and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. He has taught at the Eastman School of Music, Syracuse University, The University of Southern Mississippi, wherein 1998, he was chosen as the sole USM recipient of the Mississippi legislature's HEADWAE award, the University of South Carolina, the College of Charleston, and Illinois Wesleyan University, where he served as Visiting Director of Choral Activities in Spring 2009. He has served as a board member for the Mississippi chapter of the American Choral Directors Association, the future Myrtle Beach Performing Arts Center, and the Conductor’s Retreat at Medomak (Maine), and is a current member of the international jury for the WAC Choral Video Competition, based in Germany.
Timothy Koch is married to a South Carolina native and CMC soprano, Jo Nell Koch.
D. SCOTT FERGUSON
Collaborative Pianist
D. Scott Ferguson served on the music staff for the Broadway productions of Mary Poppins and Coram Boy. He has also served on the music staff for more than twenty national tours including Mary Poppins, Les Misérables, CATS, and Kiss of the Spider Woman. He was a Music Director for the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes Christmas Spectacular for ten years.
As a Broughton Fellow, he earned a Piano Performance degree from Murray State University (KY), attended the American Institute of Musical Studies (Graz, Austria), and then received a Master’s degree in Piano Performance: Vocal Coaching and Accompanying from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign under the tutelage of John Wustman.
D. Scott performs regularly with the Long Bay Symphony, Carolina Philharmonic, Carolina Master Chorale, and the Southeastern Oratorio Society. He enjoys teaching and performing at Coastal Carolina University.
REBECCA A. DONEVANT
Executive Director
A native of Myrtle Beach, Rebecca is beginning her 8th year with the Carolina Master Chorale. She previously served as Executive Director for the nonprofit Grand Strand Golf Director's Association for 30 years while also spending 40+ years in the hospitality industry. Her experience in management, marketing, and business brings a wide expanse of knowledge to the Carolina Master Chorale.
She has served on the Board of Directors for the Long Bay Symphony and on the City of Myrtle Beach's Cultural Arts Advisory Committee. Rebecca attended Myrtle Beach schools and is a graduate of the University of South Carolina.
Members Of The Carolina Master Chorale
Soprano
Laura Bradford
Teagan Brown
Rose Davis
Jan Helms
Jo Nell Koch
Donna McElveen
Janet O'Leary
Courtney Pendleton
Penelope Reed
Suzanne Sharp
Ann Thomas
Brooke Brumbaugh
Terry Heins
Cathy Higgins
Sara Morey
Barbara Mousaw
Peggy O’Neil
Sherrie O'Savio
Kathy Ott
Melissa Schnoor
Darleen Smith
Susan Soberano-Mendiola
Lora Zaccagnino
Alto
Judi Adams
Gabrielle Baut
Fran Gilbert
Jayne Jorden-Gavin
Laura Leedahl
Bernedetta Locatelli
Samantha Martinez
Terry Shumway
Felicia Chiappini
Betsy Cowan
Barbara Dickinson
Melody Evans
Rhonda Miller
Rachel Pedersen
Ariel Roebuck
Cindy Verost
Kimberly White
Tenor
Albert DiMauro
Robert Haley
Dennis Hawthorne
Joseph Segnit
John Guiderian
Gary Hodgins
Matthew Simpson
Coy Waters
Larry Wilson
Bass
Harry Austin
Albert Evans
Josh Hackley
John Cochran
Mark Cook
James Crawford
John Steele
