Herring Chamber Ensemble

Founded in 1997

Bingham Vick, Jr., founder and conductor

Nancy L. Smith, accompanist

The Greenville Chorale’s Herring Chamber Ensemble wishes to thank Gordon and Sarah Herring for their love of beautiful choral music and their longstanding support of this organization.

This program is funded in part by the Metropolitan Arts Council which receives support from the City of Greenville, BMW Manufacturing Company, Michelin North America, Inc., SEW Eurodrive and the South Carolina Arts Commission.

The Chamber Ensemble of the Greenville Chorale was founded by Bingham Vick, Jr., in the spring of 1997 as a professional vocal chamber ensemble. Each member is a distinguished musician with extensive vocal and choral experience and as solo artist in opera, oratorio and recital. Composed of twenty-four voices, The Herring Chamber Ensemble performs as a core part of the Greenville Chorale throughout the regular season concerts and also presents an annual concert. The varied repertoire of The Herring Chamber Ensemble allows for significant educational and choral outreach performances in the community. Dr. Vick has served for thirty-eight years as distinguished Conductor and Artistic Director of the Greenville Chorale founded in 1961.

Bingham Vick, Jr, Conductor and Artistic Director

Bingham Vick, Jr. is in his fortieth season as Artistic Director and Conductor of the Greenville Chorale. Since 1981 he has expanded the repertoire of the Chorale and excited the Chorale’s ever-growing audience with highly acclaimed performances of great choral-orchestral literature. In 1997 he founded and continues to conduct the professional Herring Chamber Ensemble. Dr. Vick retired as Professor Emeritus from Furman University in May, 2010. He was Director of Furman Singers for forty years. A native of Charlotte, NC, he earned degrees from Stetson University and Northwestern University, where he was a student of Margaret Hillis and Assistant Conductor of the Chicago Symphony Chorus. He sang for several years in the Robert Shaw Festival Chorus, conducted by Robert Shaw.

Nancy Lyons Smith, accompanist

Mrs. Smith is completing her sixteenth year as Chorale and Herring Ensemble accompanist. She is a graduate of Furman University (B. Music) and The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (M.C.M.). She was a member of the music faculty at The South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities in Greenville for 17 years where she taught AP music theory, aural skills, class piano, and served as vocal coach/accompanist. For 9 years, Mrs. Smith was part-time lecturer at Furman University where she taught piano and music theory...

Herring Chamber Ensemble Singers

(click a button to jump to that section)

Soprano / Alto Lisa Barksdale • Pamela Dodson • Lindsey Foster • Amy Joye • Kathryn Knauer • Laura Ritter • Kelley B. Addison • Judith DeFoor • Suzie Hagopian • Katelin Hawkins • Melissa Pressley • Stephanie Shelburne Tenor Luke Browder • Rick Conte • Michael Gray • David Rasbach • Randall Traynham • TJ Turner Bass / Baritone Kevin Batson • Kyle Batson • Benjamin Dobbs • Brett Levi • David Parker • Craig Philip Price

Soprano / Alto

Lisa Barksdale, soprano

is a twenty-six year veteran of the voice faculty at Furman University, and a frequent soloist in the Greenville, SC area. Having earned vocal performance degrees from Furman and Northwestern University, she is passionate about teaching her students to communicate expressively and to sing healthily. Prior to moving to Greenville, Lisa was active in the Atlanta music community, teaching choral music at Pace Academy, serving in several churches, and singing in the ASOC under the direction of Robert Shaw...

Pamela Dodson, soprano

Pamela has been a resident of Greenville, South Carolina since 2004. She holds a degree in Voice Performance from Bob Jones University where she studied under Pam Dunbar. She performed with the Chorale and Chamber Singers under the direction of Dr. Warren Cook as well as Opus 6 under Dr. David Parker. Pamela has also had the privilege of studying voice with Dominque Labelle, Bradley Williams and vocal coaching and performance with Anthony di Bonaventura. Her greatest joy is teaching private voice lessons and sharing her great love of singing with all ages. She also enjoys teaching the Mini Maestro’s children’s music classes...

Lindsey Foster, soprano

Lindsey is a musician and educator in Greenville, SC. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Vocal/Choral Music Education from Anderson University in 2014. She performed in choirs directed by Dr. Richard Williamson and studied voice with Dr. Tommy L. Watson. She then went on to receive her Masters in Music in choral conducting in 2018 from Messiah University in Mechanicsburg, PA...

Amy Joye, soprano

A native of Woodruff, SC, graduated from Furman University with a degree in church music. Amy also attended Converse College and Southern Seminary. She is a Children’s Choir specialist who has taught music, led choral workshops, and directed children’s and youth choirs in Kentucky, North Carolina and South Carolina. Amy has performed with VOX and the Ethos Chamber Singers in Charlotte, and locally with Greenville Light Opera Works and the SC Bach Choir...

Kathryn Knauer, soprano

A native of Houston, Texas. She holds a Master of Music degree from Northwestern University, and a Bachelor of Music degree from Furman University. Kathryn has enjoyed solo opportunities performing with the Kingwood Chorale, Carolina Pops, Northwestern and Furman symphonies and operas, as well as professional opera roles with Houston Grand Opera and New York City Opera. She has been featured as soloist with the Chorale and Ensemble regularly since returning to Greenville in 2008...

Laura Ritter, soprano

Originally from Morristown, Tennessee, is currently on the faculty of Anderson University, where she directs the Women's Choir and AU Choir. Laura is a graduate of Furman University with a degree in music education and earned her master's degree in choral conducting at the University of Illinois...

Kelley Batson Addison, mezzo-soprano

Kelley grew up in Greenville, and was a student of The Fine Arts Center and Brevard Music Center. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Music Theory from Furman University, where she was in Furman Singers, Chamber Singers, and the Honeybees. Kelley’s background in music performance spans a wide range including musical theater, classical, church music, and pop/rock. For many years, she operated a private teaching studio, and recently recorded a collection of original piano compositions...

Judith DeFoor, mezzo-soprano

Juditha native of Columbia, SC, graduated from Furman University with a degree in choral music education. She was a member of Furman Singers, Chamber Choir, and studied voice with Dr. Bruce Schoonmaker. For nine years, she taught choral and general music in South Carolina and Georgia. She holds a Master of Science degree from University of South Carolina and works as a speech-language pathologist at Greenville ENT, where she specializes in treating voice, swallowing, and upper airway disorders...

Suzie Evjen Hagopian, mezzo-soprano

Originally from California’s Bay Area, Suzie holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the Boston Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Elisabeth Phinney. Suzie spent a transition year singing in Nashville, TN and Graz, Austria before moving to New York City. Suzie continued voice study in New York with Patricia Scimeca and later, Frederick Martell. Suzie has been an active recital and concert soloist and has performed opera roles with dell’Arte Opera Ensemble and New York Opera Project...

Katelin Hawkins, mezzo-soprano

Katelin holds a Bachelor of Arts in Choral Education from Winthrop University. Katelin played piano, French horn and sang in choirs as a student in Rock Hill, SC. She currently lives in Simpsonville, SC and works as a music teacher and choir director at Fountain Inn Elementary. Katelin is a fully- certified Kodály music educator and her students perform often at community and Rotary events and have been invited to perform with the Fountain Inn Chorale this year...

Melissa Pressley, mezzo-soprano

Melissa is a native of Williamston, SC, attended Furman University, and has been a member of the Greenville Chorale for forty years. She is a charter member of the Chamber Ensemble, and her choral experience is extensive in the upstate. She is a long-time member and soloist with the Sanctuary Choir at First Baptist Church, Greenville..

Stephanie Shelburne, mezzo-soprano

Stephanie graduated with degrees in vocal performance and literature from Bob Jones University (Jean Greer) and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Dawn Harris). She has studied at the Berlin Opera Academy, Foothills Opera Experience, Lyric Theatre Illinois, and recently debuted on the Rodeheaver Stage, Greenville, South Carolina as Madame de la Grande Bouche in the Disney musical Beauty and the Beast...

Tenor

Luke Browder , tenor

Luke is Lecturer of Choral and Vocal Studies at Clemson University, where he directs the Men's and Women's Choirs, teaches applied voice, and provides music direction for Clemson Players musical productions. He holds the DMA in Choral Conducting from the University of South Carolina, a MM in Voice Performance from Converse University, and a BM in Voice Performance from Furman University...

Rick Conte, tenor

Rick was born in Greenville SC. He is a recent graduate at Clemson University in Mechanical Engineering and a minor in music concentrated in voice. He was a member of Clemson University Singers and Clemson’s Men’s Choir. He also was a tenor and soloist in the all male acapella group Tigeroar and the co-ed acappella group Dynamix. He was also a member of Clemson’s Chamber Choir Cantorei...

Michael Gray, tenor

Mike was born in Asheboro, NC and raised in Greenville, SC. He has served as Senior Pastor at Colonial Hills Baptist Church in Taylors, SC, for twenty-five years. His music education in college included a minor in music with a voice proficiency and participated in choir during his undergraduate education. In 2014 he earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from Grace Theological Seminary in Winona Lake, Indiana. He has directed both church and high school choirs and has sung with the Anderson chorale...

David Mark Rasbach, Tenor

David, a native of Johnstown, PA, now resides in Greenville, SC, where he divides his time between teaching, directing Rushingbrook Children’s Choir and composition. Mr. Rasbach studied with organist, Donald Wilkins at Carnegie-Mellon Conservatory of Music, and he is a graduate of Bob Jones University, from where he holds a bachelor’s degree in organ and a master’s degree in composition...

Randall Traynham, tenor

Randy is a native of Greenville. Randall attended the SC Governor’s School for the Arts and graduated from Furman University with a bachelor of arts in music where he was a member of Furman Singers, Furman Choir, and the Phi Mu Alpha Men’s Chorus. He earned an MBA from Troy University and is employed by PaymentsFirst as director of education...

TJ Turner, tenor

T.J. was recently named one of Memphis’s Top 20 Under 35 and received the University of Memphis Graduate Document Award for his dissertation research. He has received positive reviews of his “solid performances” in his professional debut as The Doctor in The Handmaid’s Tale with GLOW Lyric Theatre: Opera Wire described his “crystalline high tenor” as “delightful to listen to.”...

Bass / Baritone

Kevin Batson, bass

Kevin, a Greenville native, is a graduate of Furman University, with a BA in Church Music/Organ. He holds the Master of Music degree in Conducting from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, TX. Recently celebrating forty-one years in full-time ministry, Kevin has led the worship and music programs in churches in Texas, North Carolina, Virginia, and St. Louis, Missouri...

Kyle Batson, bass

Kyle, a native of Greenville, SC, graduated Travelers Rest High and attended North Greenville College where he studied music. Kyle was a barber by profession before answering the call to full-time ministry. He has served as Minister of Music for churches in the upstate as well as North Carolina and Georgia. He is currently the Worship Pastor for Overbrook Baptist Church, Greenville, SC where he has served for 17 years...

Benjamin Dobbs, baritone

Benjamin is Coordinator of Music Theory and Composition at Furman University. He holds a Ph.D. in music theory with a related field in music history from the University of North Texas. His primary area of research explores the development of music and musical thought in early modern Germany. In that realm, Benjamin recently published an article on numerology and Neoplatonism in an early 17th-century music treatise in the volume Explorations in Music and Esotericism (2023). He also studies the efficacy of teaching practices in music theory curricula, for which he collaborates with his wife, Shana Southard-Dobbs, Ph.D., a psychological scientist at Lander University...

Brett Levi, baritone

Brett is a native of Flat Rock, North Carolina. He graduated from Clemson University in 2020 with a B.S. in agribusiness and a minor in music. Brett is the program manager for Clemson’s Office of Research Development and is the associate director of music and organist at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Hendersonville, North Carolina. His mother, a church musician and music teacher, influenced him from an early age in singing and playing the piano and organ...

David Parker, bass-baritone

David recently retired as chair of the department of vocal studies at Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. He received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in voice performance from the University of Michigan. His voice teachers have included Andrew White, John McCollum and Sherrill Milnes. Besides being a sought-out adjudicator and clinician throughout the United States and abroad, David stays active as a soloist represented by over one hundred and thirty performances with regional and community orchestras including sixty-nine solo performances of Handel’s Messiah...

Craig Philip Price, bass-baritone

Craig is a South Carolina native and has lived in Greenville since 2019 where he serves on the voice faculty at Furman University and is a soloist at First Baptist Greenville. He holds degrees in voice performance from Furman and Manhattan School of Music, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of South Carolina. Prior to returning to South Carolina, Dr. Price sang with opera companies around the country including Central City Opera, Kentucky Opera, Charlottesville Opera, and Opera Saratoga...

Also see: HCE Concert Features 1998 – 2022