Jane Watkins Sullivan, ’46, and Marian Wallace Smith, ’37, would be so pleased to see the Choral Society of Durham today – a group that has grown from 30 to 140 members since they founded it in 1949. The quality is what they would be pleased about the most, according to their daughters. The Choral Society has performed in 21 different languages, built a diverse offering of music, and worked to engage different audiences.

“They were going to sing. It was not an option not to sing,” said Claire Sullivan Slaughter, ’72, Sullivan’s daughter and current member of Meredith’s Board of Trustees. “My mother told me she was probably 12 years old when she decided that is what she wanted to do as a profession.”

Lee Parker Smith Spong, ’66, Smith’s daughter said, “These two ladies, you have to be so grateful that they wanted to sing because they were just awesome to listen to.”

Slaughter recalls her mother’s personality as “larger than life” and remembers her mother singing all the time when she was growing up. “It was just a part of our life in our home. The days before air conditioning my Mom would practice with the windows open and people walking by on the street could hear her.” 

Sullivan taught voice lessons every half hour from 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and then went to choir practice at whatever church choir she was directing at the time. Prior to teaching at Meredith beginning in 1967, she had five choirs at Duke Memorial Methodist Church, from primary to senior choir. While teaching at Meredith, she was also the choir director at First Baptist Church in Raleigh where she had met her husband while they were both in college. 

In her career as a solo artist, Sullivan sang throughout the Triangle including with the North Carolina Symphony, and did the soprano solo work in the Messiah every year at Duke Chapel. But working at Meredith changed everything according to Slaughter. She loved it and was proud to teach at her alma mater.

Smith had a gorgeous soprano voice. “She could hit the really high notes and everybody in the church could hear the beautiful music from her,” Spong said. “Mother was also a scientist. She graduated from Meredith with a science degree and became a bacteriologist.”

“She was a lovely lady – smart, hard-working, kind, and caring. A wonderful mother. And she really loved music,” said Spong.

Voices at Meredith

Smith attended Meredith College more than likely because her mother, Lillian Parker Wallace, was a faculty member, making it an affordable option for her daughter. Wallace served as a professor of history from 1921 to 1962 and chair of the history department from 1947 to 1962.

Wallace was so beloved that the Class of 1971 established the Lillian Parker Wallace Memorial Fund in her honor and the Class of 1973 also added their financial support. To this day, the fund brings prominent leaders to speak at Meredith College.

Sullivan attended Meredith because it was a family tradition. Her great-grandfather was on the Board of Trustees when Meredith was in downtown Raleigh. Sullivan’s brothers went to Wake Forest and she attended Meredith. “That is just the way it was back then in our family. When my mother was about eight years old she was at the top of the Ferris wheel at the State Fair with her father and he said to her ‘Now there’s Meredith, Jane, that’s where you will go to college’,” said Slaughter.

How It Started

It is not known how Sullivan and Smith met, but it was, more than likely, through their passion for singing. They were both living in Durham and wanted to sing in a good choral group so they rode with Sullivan’s husband, Charley, to Raleigh each week for choir rehearsals with the Raleigh Oratorio Society. The Raleigh Oratorio Society was founded by Dr. Lillian Parker Wallace and Dr. Harry Cooper, who was head of the Meredith Music Department at the time.

Although they valued that connection, they discussed on the way to Raleigh for one of the rehearsals how tired they were of driving so far to sing. So they decided to send out postcards inviting people in the Durham area to be a part of a new musical group. Spong can vividly remember women gathering around their dining room table, working on the mailing. They sent them to church choirs in Durham, and in the end, acquired incredible singers. At the first concert, they had 30 members, which exceeded what they thought possible. The Durham Civic Choral Society was officially started and although it has changed names several times, the quality of performances has made an impact on many.

“Mother and Jane wanted quality music and they had musical friends who could also sing that quality. Then finding other people in Durham was incredible,” said Spong. “I also learned from Rodney Wynkoop, the Choral Society of Durham’s current artistic director and conductor, that Grandmother (Lillian) played the piano for early performances because Grandmother, in addition to her numerous talents, had taught herself how to play piano and was a much sought-after concert pianist.”

In the Family

Slaughter and her sisters Louise Sullivan Peters, ’74, and Ayn Sullivan Cole, ’70, sang in the Meredith College Chorale. Slaughter also sang in the Meredith Ensemble and Peters was a music education major. Cole founded the Bathtub Ring with two classmates and she came up with the group’s unique name. They formed the group to sing at the Phi Society gatherings.

Slaughter says she did not sing for 50 years but started once again two years ago. “I really do not know why. I have friends, who were Mother’s students, who have been friends of mine through the years and we are in the Cardinal Singers in Raleigh.”

Elizabeth Triplett Beam, ’72, is the director of the Cardinal Singers and Slaughter’s former suitemate.

Spong performed with the Meredith Ensemble as well. Spong’s brother sang and her father eventually sang too. “Daddy had to learn to sing because he was the only one who wasn’t singing. Mother worked with him, and he had a good voice,” said Spong.

Spong has also worked with a director and a team to start a new choral group and serves as chairman of its advisory committee.

Celebrating Two Strong Women

Spong and Slaughter were involved in the 40th-anniversary concert of the Choral Society of Durham in 1989. Spong spoke to the audience, and both of them, along with Slaughter’s father and sister, Peters, were presented with a plaque commemorating the anniversary and honoring their mothers.

Once Spong moved back to the area from Connecticut in 2000, she started getting involved again with the chorus. “I decided the first thing I would do was attend the Choral Society of Durham’s Christmas concert.”

On May 19, 2024, Spong and Slaughter were in attendance at the group’s final concert of the 75th season. The performance was presented by the Choral Society of Durham, Durham Symphony, and the Little River Chorus, a children’s choir. 

“As they waited for the start of the concert, we looked up through the glass-domed ceiling at Baldwin Auditorium on Duke’s campus and spoke to our mothers, because we wanted them to know what a marvelous and successful group they had created,“ said Spong.

Photo courtesy of Barrow Images, Pati Barrow Photography.

75 Years and Still Going Strong

Rodney Wynkoop, artistic director and conductor of the Choral Society of Durham since 1986, was recruited by a few officers of the Choral Society when he was conducting the undergraduate choir at Duke University. As of the 75th-anniversary reception in April 2024, Wynkoop has been the conductor for a little over half of the 75 years they have been in existence.

Old concert posters, programs, and photos were displayed at the reception but the people in the room were the ones being honored that evening. One of the first things Wynkoop did was acknowledge the founders, their families, and all the alumni through the years. By decade, starting in 1949, he had people stand.

“We had 25 new members just this past year, so people could see that we continue to grow and see we were still a conglomeration of different histories. We have people who’ve been in the choir for more than 50 years.”

As Wynkoop spoke about the history, images were being displayed. He talked about Sullivan and Smith founding the group and asked the entire group at the celebration to join in singing a piece from the first concert. He proceeded through the successive conductors and played an excerpt from each. They also sang something from the 25th-anniversary concert, from the 50th, and then from the 75th.

“It lasted far too long, but people seemed engaged in the history, the music, the relationships,” said Wynkoop.

Big Milestones

Wynkoop feels some of their most memorable work was the concert after September 11. At that point they were collaborating with the North Carolina Symphony, so the two groups put together an event at Duke Chapel that brought an audience that spilled onto the lawn where screens and a sound system were brought in so all could enjoy the music. They also collaborated with the Duke Chapel Choir, Duke Chorale, and the Chapel Hill Community Chorus.

“We had 350 or so singers and performed the Mozart Requiem with 3,000 people in attendance,” said Wynkoop. “We raised $26,000 for relief.”

This was not the first time one of their concerts overlapped with a historic event. In 1963, when President Kennedy was assassinated the Choral Society of Durham had a performance already planned that they did not cancel. They kept the lights dimmed and requested there be no applause.

Larger-than-life pieces like the Berlioz Requiem were also very memorable according to Wynkoop. “It is notorious for being gigantic with four brass groups around the chapel. People cannot put those things together easily. They are just too complicated and we had the ability because I was conducting so many choirs.” 

The Choral Society of Durham has performed in Carnegie Hall three times and Wynkoop says the “community sing” they did in June 2024 was a huge marker in their history because it enabled a lot of other groups to do something big, something combined.

“I made a big point in everything I said that day to encourage people to check out each other’s groups and to support them by attendance and maybe financial support. And just to give these choirs visibility, at least to each other.”

Accomplishments

The most recent major accomplishment according to Wynkoop is to galvanize, organize, and bring together all the groups of singers. He feels it is a huge thing in their history. It positions them as an enabler, organizer, and lynchpin for many organizations not just in Durham.

“I think the group has a history of trying to respond to the times. I look at efforts that must have been made in the 1960s and ’70s to get people of color to sing with us. We don’t have a stellar record that way, and it is not for lack of trying. Maybe we haven’t tried well enough, but we have a DEI committee and we’ve been doing a lot of things including performing in places we don’t have any history of performing in.”

The number of Durham Choral Society events in 2023-24 was 19. They started with two events per year and in the 1970s they started offering three events per year. Wynkoop put together an official chamber choir in 1990 and they have done 55 performances. As a whole, the groups have done 380 performances in its history with 100 of those before Wynkoop and 280 under his tenure.

“In the last five to seven years, I’ve started changing the repertoire. So one of the holiday concerts in those years included Nutcracker arrangements and we have tried to choose repertoire that has roots in our Hispanic community,” said Wynkoop. “We’ve tried to collaborate with a wider range of groups. Right before COVID, we did two performances with the North Carolina Central University Choir and our Chamber Choir, and there were a couple of civic leaders there who just were just gaga over the event.”

Wynkoop feels like the two founders would be pleased with the sound, growth, and accomplishments of the Choral Society of Durham. “One gauge of that is how their children are struck by what they are seeing and what they think of our group. We’re not the biggest we’ve ever been, currently around 140 singers, but our repertoire is pretty vast and we’re open to span even more. You know, I don’t want to make the statement that we are held in better reputation now than at any time in our history. I can’t say that, but I think generally people know our performances are really good.”

Proud of Their Mothers

Slaughter says her mother was as good a teacher as she was a singer. Many of her students who studied with Sullivan at Meredith are still devoted to her memory. They come up to Slaughter at reunion weekends and alumnae events and reminisce about her.

“Just to think that they did something that lasted for 75 years, and it’s still going and still, they’re so good. They would be so pleased,” said Slaughter.

“I feel like they would look at each other today and say ‘We did it. Can you believe it?’,” said Spong.

More information and a schedule of performances can be found at choral-society.org.