Voices of Canton Annual Auction and Fundraiser

On February 21, 2015, Voices of Canton, Inc., Stark County community's premier choral organization, is presenting our Annual Auction and Fundraiser.
The mission of Voices of Canton is to celebrate choral arts through performance, using the power of “many voices” as a catalyst within the community to educate, inspire and unite.

All proceeds will benefit VOCI scholarships and programming. VOCI has been providing scholarships to gifted Stark County singers for 58 years!

Our silent auction goal for the VOCI 2nd Annual Auction and Fundraiser is $6000.

What do you get from....
A blizzard
An internationally acclaimed conductor
And a young woman with a passion to sing?
75 Years of Outstanding Choral Music

The existence of Voci is credited to the passion of one woman, Dorothy Kerst Davis, who after spending a summer at the Chautauqua Music Festival wanted to bring opera home to Canton, Ohio. With the support of the Director from Chautauqua Opera and Maestro Bimboni from the Julliard School, Dorothy persuaded Boris Goldovsky at that time, from Cleveland Institute of Music, to be their director. He had one contingency: Ms. Davis must have at least 14 trained singers to participate. With her passion and enthusiasm, Ms. Davis had 100 singers signed up for a long night of auditions. However, in the Northern Ohio tradition, a blizzard prevented all but 20 to come and sing for Goldovsky. It was enough! And this fabulous conductor who later went on to conduct opera at the New England Conservatory of Music, Tanglewood, and finally was the commentator for the Saturday afternoon live Met Opera radio broadcasts, directed and conducted the first 5 opera productions of the Canton Civic Opera, later renamed Voices of Canton, Inc.

What a grand beginning! Here we are 75 years later. Voci…many voices, one passion! Dorothy Kerst Davis shared her dream with many in order for it to become a reality. It is our turn to tell the Voci story. We have a rich musical history in Canton and as we approach our “75th anniversary season”, I want to invite you to join us as we celebrate 75 years of outstanding choral music!
Our History

Beginning in 1939 as a non-profit, 501C3 choral organization, then known as Canton Civic Opera, VOCI has been performing opera, operettas, musicals, major works, madrigals and musical reviews for the public of greater Canton for 75 seasons. In 2003 the Board of Trustees unanimously changed the organization's name to Voices of Canton, Inc.: VOCI, pronounced VO-Chee, an Italian word meaning many voices.

The mission of Voices of Canton is to celebrate choral art through performance, using the power of "many voices" as a catalyst within the community to educate, inspire and unite.