From its inception, the Charleston Symphony Orchestra’s Gospel Choir has focused on the power of music to cross cultural boundaries. Indeed, the Gospel Choir is an offshoot of the Community Partners Committee, a community outreach concern started by Leah Greenburg (former Marketing & Development Director for the Charleston Symphony Orchestra,) and chaired at the time by now-Choir President Lee Pringle from 1996-2000. Early on, this committee produced outreach concerts in the Charleston community, the first such concert occurring in February of 1999 to spotlight African-American History Month. This particular concert was a collaboration between the Charleston Symphony and the Charleston Symphony Chorus, drawing enthusiastic responses from an audience of community members and Symphony board members.

In fact, former board member Wally Seinsheimer, Jr. suggested to the CSO’s executive director and other board members that an event be created similar to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s Gospel Christmas Concert. Inspired by this concept, Seinsheimer, Pringle, and then-executive director Darrell Edwards traveled to Atlanta where they met with the Atlanta Symphony’s executive director and members of his staff. They advised the three on how to develop an annual Gospel event, and they treated them to a Thursday night performance of the Christmas concert. Seinsheimer, Pringle, and Edwards were mesmerized by the Atlanta Symphony Gospel Choir’s dynamic performance, duly noting the power of such a Gospel performance to serve as community outreach, given the event’s highly integrated audience. They returned to Charleston overflowing with ideas for such an event in their own city.

Lee Pringle took the Chair of Community Partners and embarked upon trying to establish and organize the Gospel Choir, an effort that took the whole year of 2000. Lee first met with Emily Remington, known as the “Mother of Choral Music in Charleston” (and as the former voice instructor to opera diva Jesse Norman.) In addition to Ms. Remmington, Dr. Robert Taylor (the director of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra Chorus) and Lon Shull (local attorney and director of Charleston’s Men’s Chorus) also supported the idea and gave the blessing to start the Gospel Choir. The Charleston Symphony committed the necessary funds and hired a guest conductor. Meanwhile, a press release was issued in search of a director for the Choir, and a total of eight candidates were interviewed. From 2000 - 2007 the choir was led by Vivan E. Jones.

Thus, the Charleston Symphony Orchestra Gospel Choir was born. Starting in August 2000 with twenty members, it has quickly worked up to a group of eighty singers. The 2003 Christmas season marked the fourth annual Christmas performance, this year featuring the fourth consecutive return of guest conductor Vincent Danner, who is the Associate Director of the Memphis Symphony. Additionally, in the spring of 2002, Lee Pringle produced the Gospel Choir’s first “standalone” concert (sans Charleston Symphony Orchestra), a performance entitled “Crowns.” This special performance was inspired by the book of the same name (by Michael Cunningham and Craig Marberry), a book which is a collection of Portraits of Black Women in church hats. This sold out performance on March 24th, 2002 was followed by two performances in May and June at Piccolo Spoleto. (For a look at the debut on Broadway of a theatrical version of “Crowns,” click here). The Choir presented a collaboration with the Atlantic Southeast Ballet, joining classical and modern ballet with Spirituals/Gospel, in a performance that garnered rave reviews.

The Choir recently performed Retrospection: African-American Sacred Songs , selections from the recently released hymnal for Protestant African-American Churches , African-American Heritage Hymnal. The performance told a moving story that reflected the spiritual journey of a people. The hymnal, published by GIA publications, endeavors to preserve the rich oral tradition of African-American sacred songs in print form.

An ever evolving entity the 2007-2008 season saw the Choir under the leadership of interim director Glenn R. Nixon, who continued to take the choir to new musical heights. In July of 2008, Sandra Barnhardt took the helm under a newly reorganized structure as Music Director, with Nathan Nelson assuming the role as Associate Director. Click here for a press release with bios for Ms. Barnhardt and Mr. Nelson.