David W. Hodgkins

© Berta A. Daniels, BADCAM Photo

A native of Reading, Massachusetts, David W. Hodgkins began his musical studies at the age of six under the tutelage of James Roth. He studied piano, voice and harpsichord at the University of Massachusetts/Amherst, receiving his Bachelor of Music degree in music education, and earning his Master of Music degree in choral conducting from Temple University in Philadelphia under Alan Harler. In addition, Mr. Hodgkins's mentors in conducting have included Wayne Abercrombie, Fiore Contino, Paul Vermel, and Gunther Schuller.

Mr. Hodgkins attended the Aspen Music Festival on three occasions, twice with fellowships in choral and orchestral conducting and once as assistant conductor of the Aspen Choral Institute. He also attended the Sandpoint Music Festival as an orchestral conducting fellow. He has served as choral director of the Pennsylvania Opera Theatre in Philadelphia and the Monadnock Music Festival, and as interim director of the Back Bay Chorale. He has taught in the music theory department at Temple University, has served on the choral faculties of the New England Conservatory of Music and the University of Massachusetts/Lowell, and has been guest conductor at the University of Massachusetts/Amherst. Mr. Hodgkins has also made numerous appearances as a music festival conductor and as a conducting clinician.

From 1989 throught the spring of 1999, Mr. Hodgkins was Director of Choral Activities at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. During that time, he also led Convivium Musicum, an 18-voice Renaissance music ensemble. Since 1989, he has conducted the orchestra and choruses of the Commonwealth School, a private high school in Boston’s Back Bay, in music ranging from a cappella works to oratorio. He also coaches chamber music and teaches college-level music theory and ear training. In August 1999, Mr. Hodgkins was named Artistic Director of the New England Classical Singers.

In 1992, Mr. Hodgkins became the Artistic Director of Coro Allegro, a Boston-based, 60-voice ensemble that he has led to critical acclaim. With Coro Allegro, Mr. Hodgkins has conducted world-premiere performances of works by Daniel Pinkham, Alan Fletcher, Richard St. Clair, Kenneth Fuchs, Ruth Lomon, and Patricia Van Ness. In addition, he has conducted Boston premieres of works by Marianne Martinez, Rebecca Clarke, Arvo Pärt, and William Grant Still. Mr. Hodgkins prepared the Back Bay Chorale for the recording of St. Peter’s Oratorio, by John Knowles Paine, which was conducted by Gunther Schuller and recorded on the GunMar label. He has also released two compact discs -- In the Clearing and somewhere i have never traveled, with Coro Allegro.