Doff and Laurel Procter to retire from leadership of Alabama Choir School

To fill "Bear" Bryant's shoes, many marched forth, doing admirable, even championship work. But it wasn't until many incarnations later, until Nick Saban, that the adjustment felt not just smooth, but poised to take next steps.

In the relatively smaller arts world, on more modest stages, with tighter budgets, groups can and do conduct national searches, which is how the Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra found its string of music directors following homegrown Ransom Wilson: Adrian Gnam, Louis Lane, Shinik Hahm, and Adam Flatt.

More: Meet the voice of the University of Alabama's graduation ceremonies

But other groups thrive promoting from within. At Theatre Tuscaloosa, as founding executive producer Paul K. Looney eased toward emeritus, his friend Doug Perry, with protege Michael Carr, and then Tina Turley and Adam Miller, each in turn moved up. At Kentuck, when founder Georgine Clarke took a job at the Alabama State Council of the Arts, the board found Gary Richardson, but then installed former Theatre Tuscaloosa mainstay Miah Michaelsen to the post. More recently, Exa Johnston Skinner, who's been with Kentuck since 2015, ascended to the top job.

As the Procters, Doff and Laurel, plan to retire from the Alabama Choir School, they've got a smooth transition planned, with Leah Keye Durham moving up into Doff's artistic director position, and Sarah Vander Wal assuming Laurel's old post as executive director.

Doff and Laurel will lead their last ACS spring concert May 10. Though retiring from duties with the school, the Procters will keep their jobs at Christ Episcopal Church ― where the ACS was founded, and is hosted ― as director and assistant director of music.

Passing the torch

Durham moved to Tuscaloosa in August 2021, from Pendleton, South Carolina, with husband Justin, who is music director at First United Methodist Church. They have two young children, Colin and Molly. After earning a bachelor's degree in choral music education from Furman University and master's in choral conducting performance from Louisiana State University, Durham has been teaching and conducting about 15 years.

"When we arrived, I was looking for 'What's the choir scene like in Tuscaloosa? Outside of churches and schools what's going on?' " Durham said. When an out-of-town trip trip fell through, she took Colin, 6 at the time, and herself to the ACS' holiday concert. They loved the music the school made, she said, and heard at concert's close that a former associate conductor was moving on.

"So I perked up. I thought this could be really awesome," she said. "Like they probably already have somebody, but let's see."

The Durhams talked it over. She updated her resume, then added a cover letter saying basically "You've probably already got somebody, but I'm here, and we're new to town." Doff and Laurel invited them to Christ Episcopal, and the musical families all hit it off. The Durhams assured them that they were buying a home here, enrolling the kids in school, putting down roots.

"We didn't know at the time if they were going to be hanging out, if it was going to be a mutual good fit," Doff said. "But that whole first year we kept adding little things to (Durham's work load), and the kids just flock to her."

The COVID-19 pandemic, with shutdowns that began March 2020, had cut the choir from 80 to 68 singers. The Procters fought to keep them singing.

"We were schlepping electronics over to Capitol Park three afternoons a week," Doff said, "throwing keyboards, speakers, mics, everything so the kids could stand six feet apart and sing."

The ACS canceled that spring's concert, but didn't miss another, performing outside in the cold, patrons huddling together in blankets. The Procters cut their paychecks essentially in half, to make up for lost tuitions, but keeping other staff at normal pay, "... because Lauren and I are blessed to have the jobs at the church," Doff said.

When Leah showed, and as the pandemic worries lessened, the Procters began thinking of retirement, and working on a gradual transition. The ACS has kept finely tuned by such layering.

How the Procters came to the Alabama Choir School

When founder Karen Nicolosi prepared to ease back, she had not one but two Procters to step in, one a Tuscaloosa native, the other his bride and mother of their three girls, both renowned musicians and educators.

Nicolosi founded the group in 1985 for male singers 8 to 14 as the Tuscaloosa (later Alabama) Boychoir, in the mold of groups such as the Cambridge and Vienna boy choirs. She began with 17 boys, and just two staff members. Nicolosi guided them to excellence, to international tours, performances at the White House and more, growing support and staff in the process. To become more inclusive, the group added children's and girls' choruses, concert choir, and ambassador choir, to the flagship chamber choir. With such evolution came the name change, to Alabama Choir School.

Doff, a Tuscaloosa County High School class of '72 grad, earned his bachelor's in vocal performance at UA in '77, moving on to his master's at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he met Laurel, an Ohoian studying for her bachelor's at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. Both were in other relationships, but both of those ended.

"We found each other, and now it's been 42 years," Doff said, "and we've worked together the whole time."

Traveling widely in Europe and across the U.S., the Procters sang for opera, operetta and musical theater. While living in Europe, they'd visit the states about every summer, and were familiar with what Nicolosi was doing.

"Your parents," Laurel said to her husband "kept sending us Tuscaloosa News clippings of things."

After they became parents, to Leslie, Christina and Jessica, each of whom has sung and performed at various levels, the Procters began thinking more about Tuscaloosa. Leslie was about to enter first grade in Graz, Austria, and her parents knew that if their girls grew up and made more lasting friends, they'd want to remain.

"We knew we were eventually going to come home," Laurel said, "so we thought 'Yeah, this is a good time.' "

The Procters come home

Laurel was first a mom, and a fan of the ACS, where she began volunteering. They were burning through savings, so Doff swerved into a new lane, at a non-music job that kept him traveling, and training others. He'd needed a rest, having sung 94 major roles in nine months his last season in Europe.

"I didn't sing a hymn in church; I didn't sing anything for a year," he said. The outside-music job lost his interest, though, about the time Nicolosi needed a new associate conductor. Doff had been working with the growing ACS for about a dozen years when Nicolosi named him as her successor in 2011.

The original 17 had grown to more than 200, in six choirs, with singers grades one to 12. The Procters learned from Nicolosi's guidance, and patience; she'd really set the template, they said, laid ground for growth. Durham feels much the same about her next steps.

"Of course with different personalities and different experiences, things will shift slightly," Durham said. "But Sarah (Vander Wal, the rising executive director) and I are not looking to change the choir school. We are, both of us, humbled and honored to be taking this on."

The choir school is an odd beast, Doff said, so finding the right successors gives them comfort.

"I've been here since 2011, for Karen, and we're hoping you guys will be here 20 years too," Doff said. "That's the way it works. It's a good fit."

How to get Alabama Choir School tickets

The Procters' final spring concert as leaders of the ACS will be 7 p.m. May 10 in the Moody Concert Hall. Tickets are $15, available online through acstickets.ludus.com/index.php.

There'll be a passing of the baton at concert's end, in a piece commissioned by former assistant conductor and composer-in-residence, Alex Diaz, titled "Carry a Big Stick." All 100 children will be singing a work full of in-jokes and school references, for the Procters.

Reach Mark Hughes Cobb at mark.cobb@tuscaloosanews.com.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Doff and Laurel Procter to retire as Alabama Choir School leaders