About the Chorale
The Chesapeake Chorale began as the vision of founding President and Artistic Director, Kimberly Leggett. The Chorale’s mission of enhancing and sustaining school music programs benefits the community both culturally and financially. All proceeds collected from ticket sales are given to area schools to keep music programs alive and thriving. Since our founding in 1996, this non-profit, volunteer community choir has grown in size from 30 to 100 members and donated in excess of $260,000 in equipment and money for the improvement of school performance facilities and music programs.
Recent Press coverage of Chorale Donations to Schools - 2018
Artistic Director — Dr. Cheryl Brown Davis was educated in the Richmond City and Chesterfield County Virginia Schools. In 1970 she received a Bachelor of Music Ed. degree from Madison College, in 1971 a Master of Music in vocal performance and choral conducting from The University of Michigan, and in 1990 a Doctor of Education degree from the University of Virginia. In 1972 Dr. Brown Davis began her teaching career in the Cheboygan, Michigan Public schools. She subsequently taught choral music at Ferguson High School in Newport News, in Rockingham County, Virginia, in Ann Arbor Michigan Public Schools, and for five years she taught at North Dakota State University. From 1998-2007, Dr. Brown taught vocal music in Albemarle County, Virginia. After her husband retired in 2007, Dr. Brown Davis returned to Newport News and taught at Riverside Elementary School until her retirement in 2011. Dr. Brown Davis has been a frequent guest conductor and vocal music adjudicator in district and state festivals for the past thirty-five years in Virginia, Michigan, and North Dakota. She continues to perform as a guest soprano soloist and choral conductor. She conducts the Annual Messiah “Sing-In” each December held at Kilmarnock United Methodist Church. She retired from teaching in June 2011 and lives in Heathsville with her husband, William Davis. She became Artistic Director of the Chesapeake Chorale in 2013.
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Accompanist -- Beth Conley is a native of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Beth began piano lessons at the age of 6, started playing for church at the age of 12, and continues to accompany, as pianist, to this day in several area churches. She was privately tutored for 15 years throughout her residency in Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia and finally the Northern Neck when her family moved here in 1995. Beth began her teaching career in 1996, giving private lessons at her home. She subsequently taught piano at the former Center for The Arts in Kilmarnock, Virginia from 1997-2001, at Chesapeake Academy from 2006 to the present day and also continues to teach privately from her home. Over the course of Beth’s musical career she has played with the Northern Neck Orchestra, and has accompanied over 20 theatrical productions with various theaters including, “H.M.S. Pinafore”, “Annie”, “Fiddler On The Roof”, “Carousel”, “The Sound of Music”, “A Christmas Carol”, “The Wizard of Oz”, “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”, “The Music Man” and many others. Beth currently resides in Northumberland County with her husband, her three teenage sons and a plethora of furry and feathered friends.
