Accompanists

Nancy has been involved with WoS (and formerly QVS) occasionally since Winter 2012 and joined as accompanist for the Spring 2020 season.

Nancy grew up in a musical family in Stafford Springs, CT, started taking piano lessons at five years old, accompanied the Stafford High School chorus while a student, and attended Hartt School of Music in West Hartford. She began a career in music in 2000 and accompanied many musicals, from Bernstein to Sondheim, at local schools and theaters including the Bradley Playhouse in Putnam, CT.

Ducharme has accompanied choruses at Pomfret School, Woodstock Academy, Marianapolis Preparatory School, Woodstock Middle School, Putnam High and Middle Schools, Nichols College, and Griswold High School. She has also accompanied voice lessons both at UConn and privately.

Nancy also works at East Woodstock Congregational Church, starting out as organist/pianist in 2008 before being promoted to Director of Music and Senior Choir Director in 2015.

The daughter of a pianist, she used to joke that she would never be like her mother, yet she has wound up teaching piano lessons for the last fifteen years and accompanies the Mansfield, CT Senior Center Chorus!

Next time you attend a concert, be sure to sit near the piano so you can watch Nancy burn up the keys (don't get dizzy)!

Having been with the chorus for over a decade, Brooks Milgate is referred to by Music Director Nym Cooke as "the engine that drives the ship." He has added style and panache to many of the group's finest performances.

Born in Mesopotamia, OH, Milgate is a graduate of the Berklee College of Music in Boston. He has sung and played electric keyboards in a number of pop and jazz groups, most recently the duo Hey Now, Morris Fader.

As of 2020, Brooks has taken a hiatus from WoS as he tours the United States and Europe accompanying songwriter, guitar player, and singer Ana Popovic.

Brooks lives in Webster, Massachusetts and is married with two children. WoS has been lucky to have such a skilled musician and wonderful person as its accompanist and hopes to work with him again!