Strand Notebook | Serendipity Singers search for new leader

After the Serendipity Singers of South Carolina give their spring concert in April, Diana Scroggins is planning to retire as its director.

But she is not leaving music. “Nobody leaves their passion,” she said.

She is just trying to lighten her load a little. She teaches piano at Andy Owings Music Center in Myrtle Beach and she directs the choir at Trinity Presbyterian Church on Glenns Bay Road.

Scroggins is searching desperately for a new director for the Serendipity Singers. She said that there are many good choral groups in the area and the nonprofit Serendipity Singers found their niche by singing familiar songs that are not highbrow or foreign, which they continue to do.

“We’re looking for a person that likes to sing familiar songs,” she said.

She expects applicants to be educated in choral music. A new director will have the opportunity to walk into a built-in group of ladies who love to sing, and most of them have been singing together since the choir began in 2006. Cindy Senatore has been the accompanist since then.

Harriet Blodis is among the group of about 30 women who enjoy singing together and are concerned about getting a new director. She said she understands that Scroggins needs to leave them. She tried to do in once before and they talked her out of leaving. “She’s a wonderful person. I like her a lot. We don’t want her to leave,” Blodis said.

“We’re looking for a new director or else I don’t know what Serendipity is going to be,” Blodis added.

The ages of the choir members range from about 50 up to 80. “We’re not young ladies,” she said.

But they are ladies who can sing and love to do it.

“Singing makes me happy. It’s uplifting,” said Blodig.

And that goes back to part of the reason Scroggins founded the Serendipity Singers of S.C. 10 years ago — to give women an opportunity to sing and to raise appreciation for their voices.

The stated objectives of the nonprofit group of singing women are to promote appreciation of seasonal, patriotic and popular choral music, to develop training for its members, provide information and educational opportunities for the local communities to improve their enjoyment and understanding of choral music and to encourage the establishment and support of student scholarships.

Scroggins, a Pennsylvania native, has created a rich history in music and theatre since she moved to the Grand Strand in 1985. Widely known as the founder of the Long Bay Symphony, she was the first executive director of the Theatre of the Republic in Conway after it moved to its present location, and was executive director of the Swamp Fox Players in Georgetown.

But the past is not as important as the future is to her, and she is concentrating on finding the perfect

director for this group of woman who can sing and love to do it.

For more information, call 333-1980 or visit www.serendipitysingersofsc.com.

This story was originally published February 4, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Strand Notebook | Serendipity Singers search for new leader."