Our Story

In the spring of 2018, I reached out to a group of talented friends and colleagues with a message asking them if they would be willing to meet for a summer session of choral music.  They were the most promising choral singers I had met during my undergraduate and graduate studies at Furman University and East Carolina University and I had nothing to offer them but a vision of what it might be like to sing together.  To my delight, they were enthusiastic, one singer named Chris Short even offered to bring some microphones along to record our work.  It was a blast, and the combination of people and voices was more than I could have hoped for.  

Chris and I would later become roommates for our final year at East Carolina University.  We dreamt of what it might be like to get these singers together more formally.  While our enthusiasm was high for the music-making experience, we discussed a mutual desire to aspire to be more than just a performing ensemble.  After some brainstorming we discovered we both had impactful experiences with benefit concerts and philanthropy as young musicians.  If this community spirit could be captured in the setting of a professional choral ensemble, we acknowledged this could become something worth aspiring towards.  In our dream world, I could serve as Artistic Director for such a group, and Chris could build an Executive Director role.  

Upon sharing our vision with our fellow singers, we were met with a flood of support and commitment we could have never expected.  In December 2019, we presented our first benefit concert for a local nonprofit in Durham, NC under the name “Servire,” the Latin verb meaning “to serve.”  Between the ensemble’s successful concert performance and a shared affirming sense of purpose between its singers, a seed had been planted that even a global pandemic the following spring could not unroot.  After working together to cultivate our vision, eventually, we dared to call our dream “The Sing and Serve Mission.”    

Today, the Sing and Serve Mission has raised thousands of dollars and engaged hundreds of students and audience members in educational outreach and hands-on service projects for local nonprofit organizations throughout the Southeast.  Servire’s roster has continued to grow to attract like-minded choral artists from across the United States who are at the top of their craft.  We present with 6-12 voices, offering a wide array of programs from our concert series appearances to our mission-based, “Sing and Serve Residencies.”  We are honored to collaborate and work alongside some of the most prestigious artists and composers of today.  All of this has been made possible by our incredible donors and our ruthlessly committed roster members.  It is our humbling honor to Sing and Serve with Servire.

Andrew Whitlow, Artistic Director and Co-Founder