Building Community Through Music Making

Danica Buckley, M.A., M.M., adjunct faculty of English in the School of Sciences and Humanities, is a shining example of the different ways that Wentworth Institute of Technology faculty contribute to the broader community. 

Buckley, who has been teaching English I and English II at Wentworth since September 2007, brings a myriad of expertise into her classrooms, helping students become better writers and editors, as well as enthusiasts for learning and literature. This includes her interest in the poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow as they relate to war, abolition and peace, her travels to various battlefields and museums in France, England, and Belgium as part of her research on aspects of British involvement in World War I, and engaging students in challenging discussions on current issues pertaining to diversity and social justice. 

In her off-campus life, Buckley is a professional choral-orchestral conductor and soprano singer, and she has conducted hundreds of performances. In addition to her current position as artistic director and conductor of the Choral Art Society (CAS) of the South Shore and the Cape Cod Chorale, she is the music director of the Simmons University Chamber Choir. During the Fall 2021 semester, she took on a last-minute conducting role for the Colleges of the Fenway (COF) Chorus and Orchestra. 

When Colleges of the Fenway Performing Arts Co-Director, Kristen Young, asked Buckley’s supervisor at Simmons University, Professor Gregory Slowik, Ph.D., Department of Art and Music, if he had an idea of someone who could take on the COF chorus in October, he immediately recommended Buckley. 

“I noticed they also needed an orchestra conductor,” said Buckley. “Since I can do both, I agreed to do both jobs.” 

In a short period of time, Buckley was tasked with planning a performance that took place on December 4, 2021 at Alumnae Hall at Simmons. She decided to combine the two COF groups with her Simmons Chamber Choir, as well as the Simmons Sirens. Her strategy, which involved giving each COF group—a six-member chorus and ten-member orchestra—fewer musical pieces to prepare, also alleviated the stress of returning to live music making during the ongoing pandemic and starting rehearsals late in the semester. 

“We had a full house,” said Buckley. “For the grand finale, I programmed Leroy Anderson’s holiday favorite, ‘Sleigh Ride’, and we had about 40 singers in total, accompanied by the COF orchestra. Everyone enjoyed performing it, and it was the perfect ending to a return to live performances. It was music making at its best by the COF community.” 

As an educator, Buckley was thrilled with everyone’s progress between October and December, especially due to the fact that it was hard to rehearse in masks and everyone was pandemic-weary.  

You can learn more about Danica Buckley’s musical journey and her perspective on gender and conducting by reading a feature article that was published last month by the Scituate Mariner.