The Hartford Chorale established the “Maestro Richard Coffey Fund” in honor of our beloved Maestro Richard Coffey, upon the occasion of his retirement after 17 years as Music Director of the Hartford Chorale. The Maestro’s retirement also coincides with Hartford Chorale’s 50th anniversary season. The Hartford Chorale is a volunteer, not-for-profit organization that presents masterpieces of great choral art on a symphonic scale throughout southern New England and beyond, serving as the primary symphonic chorus for the Greater Hartford community.
For the last 17 years, the Chorale has been fortunate to be guided by Music Director Richard Coffey. Among his many honors, Mr. Coffey has been named Choral Director of the Year by the Connecticut Chapter of the American Choral Directors Association (1992), and in 2007, he received a Major Achievement Award from the Hartford Symphony Orchestra in recognition of his “outstanding and inspiring artistic leadership of the Symphony’s two major choral partners, CONCORA and the Hartford Chorale.” He was the 2009 recipient of the Alfred Nash Patterson Lifetime Achievement Award in the Arts. Most recently he spearheaded the commissioned work, “Alive Poems,” by Scott Perkins, which the Chorale proudly introduced at its 50th Anniversary Concert in May, 2022. Mr. Coffey believes that this stupendous piece “will become a mainstay in the world of great symphonic choral music.”
The establishment of the Maestro Richard Coffey Fund is an opportunity for donors to recognize the contributions and talents of Maestro Coffey, while ensuring that the Hartford Chorale will thrive under new leadership. Mr. Coffey’s demand for excellence, always lightened with a humorous touch, provides a strong foundation upon which the Chorale is grounded as the group closes the book on its first fifty years. The Chorale will utilize the investment income from the Fund to help underwrite portions of the costs of future self-produced concerts. By being a part of this fund, donors will help ensure that Maestro Coffey’s legacy remains fresh and relevant, and that his name appears in our future programming as a reminder of our 17 glorious years under his baton. Donors to this fund will be acknowledged in programs that the Chorale produces.