The love of music has inspired the creation of many community choruses.

For the Laurens County Chorale, the purpose was to allow singers to gather and rehearse choral pieces while providing citizens of Laurens County with a source of cultural entertainment.

This season, the chorale is celebrating its 50th year, a remarkable achievement for a community musical group.

Laurens County Chorale was founded in 1975 by Charles T. Gaines after one of his students at Presbyterian College suggested he start a local singing group.

Gaines began his academic career at Presbyterian College in Clinton in 1965 and served as chair of the Department of Fine Arts until his retirement in 1998. At Presbyterian, he formed the College Choir and the Madrigal Singers and introduced Broadway Cabaret performances.

He also founded and directed the Greenwood Festival Chorale in Easley. 

So he had some experience forming choruses.  

There were 35 singers and a chamber orchestra of seven in that first year. The debut performance was in May 1974, when they presented Franz Schubert’s Mass in G Major at Laurens District 55 High School.

The chorale has performed music across all genres, including sacred, classical, Broadway, and Christmas. 

Gaines retired as director of the chorale in 2009. He passed away in 2018.

A half-century later, only one original member still sings with the chorale. 

Clinton resident Carol Gaines (no relation) has been with the chorale since its inception. “We couldn’t have had a better start. Chuck was a great director,” she said. “I always remember him with a big grin on his face.

“I was delighted when Chuck started up the chorale,” she said. “I loved the varied music he chose for us, even when it was challenging.”   

The chorale’s accompanist at the time was Nancy Von Hollen. Gaines describes her as “a fantastic accompanist” who “always seemed to know what Chuck wanted even before he asked for it.” 

Von Hollen and her husband donated a house in Clinton that has become the Clinton Museum. She passed away in 2006.

The current accompanist is Andrew Sheffield. Sheffield served as an accompanist and adjunct instructor in piano, musicianship, and music theory at both Presbyterian College and Newberry College until 2021, and he directed the Laurens County Academy of Music at PC. He is now a full-time editor with the Institute for Intergovernmental Research.

Gaines said she remembers the chorale once performing a Broadway-themed concert in Edmunds Hall on the Presbyterian College campus in 2003. “We had a huge turnout,” she said.

Over the years, the chorale has performed with other choral groups. That first year, the chorale sang Beethoven's Ninth (Ode to Joy) in German with several choral groups in Columbia, accompanied by the Columbia Philharmonic Orchestra. “That was quite a challenge!” Gaines remembered. She said they also sang Brahms' Requiem in Greenwood with the Greenwood Festival Chorale in 2004.  

Last spring, the chorale sang with members of the Presbyterian College Choir, featuring the music of Toto, Michael Jackson and John Rutter.  

The current director, Kipper Ackerman, said she plans to make sure that “each individual feels welcomed and needed as a vital part of our success. And, “just as Dr. Gaines demonstrated,” she continued, “I will expect them to give their all during rehearsal, and they will always receive mine.”

In addition to directing the chorale, Ackerman is the Director of Curial Activities and Enrollment Liaison for Visual and Performing Arts at Presbyterian College. 

She is also the director of The Sounds of Grace, a nonprofit that uses music to promote peace and healing in health care and hospice facilities, as well as in special needs classrooms. 

Ackerman also plays the harp for residents in assisted living facilities and hospitals.

After a half-century of singing with the same group, what keeps Gaines returning year after year?

“I’ve made new friends and gotten to know other people in different settings than just work-related life,” Gaines said. “Being in this group has been a huge part of my life in Clinton. I can't believe it started so long ago!”

Ackerman said what makes the chorale great is the people. “The members of the chorale are just that. They belong, and their presence and participation are vital. Our time together is spent rehearsing a wide variety of secular and sacred music, classical and popular, Broadway tunes, love songs from all over the world, carols, and folk songs. While not everyone is able to read the music like a book in rehearsal, we work together as a unit.

“Each member brings their gifts and talents, strengths and weaknesses, large and small bouts of humor to rehearsal, and they all play a part in the two hours we spend together,” she said.

The chorale’s mission is simple, and Ackerman said she knows the reason. Why complicate “the beautiful opportunity to gather together with other choristers and share in the gift of choral music that many of us experienced growing up and desire as we have become more ‘mature.’

“The chorale is open to all adults, and that means as young as 18 years of age. If being a part of a choir was important to you as a young person,” she said, “it will still have the same effect on your mind, body, heart, and spirit as an adult, if not more. 

“The community at large enjoys the concerts, and live music is something that cannot be matched,” Ackerman continued. “When someone attends one of our concerts, they not only receive a performance of the listed repertoire, but they also leave with a small piece of the joy that radiates from each and every member of the chorale.”

Ackerman said she plans to continue the chorale’s mission by offering a wide variety of choral music while striving to foster the love of singing in choirs that so many have and desire to maintain throughout the rest of their lives.  

She said she also plans to look for more ways to collaborate with the Presbyterian College Choir and other musicians to expand the chorale’s repertoire and offer to the community of Laurens County and the surrounding areas. “Heck, we might even have a little fun along the way,” she said.

Come hear the Laurens County Chorale at their spring concert. Featured will be music by American composers such as Randall Thompson and Irving Berlin, as well as pieces such as Home on the Range, Take Me Out to the Ballgame and Shenandoah. 

The chorale will have two concerts. The first is Friday, May 1, at First Presbyterian in Laurens, and the second is Sunday, May 3, at Westminster Presbyterian in Clinton. 

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