About us

South Boundary is inspired by the King’s Singers, Chanticleer, the Whiffenpoofs, former collegiate a cappella groups like Straight No Chaser, Cantus, the US Army Chorus, the Cornell (and other) Glee Clubs and generations of male quartets. Our musical program ranges from the Renaissance to the contemporary and from sacred to secular, two to eight voice parts and we even feature a guitar, flute and a piano (on occasion) and a full-sized Jazz Band.

The men of South Boundary represent many local choirs and choral ensembles. We are active in local theater and we all have university or community choral backgrounds. We come from many parts of this country, some recently and some a long time ago, and we include in our number university students, career professionals and retirees.

As we start our third season we are:

John Anderson – a retired Department of Energy Engineering Manager, John moved to Aiken in 1982 and has enjoyed participating in the choir at Aiken’s First Baptist Church and in the 2007 Kidney Benefit, “Music Man”, where he was typecast as the bass in the barbershop quartet. As the tallest member of the group, John can peer over the footlights to count heads in the audience at each performance.

Tim Bennett – a former Navy submariner and current Engineer at SRS. In addition to working a real job, Tim stays busy with the choir at South Aiken Presbyterian Church, yard work and vehicle repairs. Tim is exercising his options to grow older but not necessarily grow up.

Al Bey – a retired chemist and recipient of the 2009 Alumni Achievement Award from his alma mater, Capital University. Al sings with three local groups and volunteers as planning consultant for a north side Aiken neighborhood. In his spare time he hunts and plucks wild turkeys. His wife also allows him to cook them.

Tom Calhoun – Navy guy, retired business owner and former Director of Music for Barrington (IL) United Methodist Church. He sings in the choir at St. John’s United Methodist Church and earns extra credit by directing a children’s choir. His real bio: “Linda’s roommate and proud granddad of Jessie, Jackson and Benjamin”.

Jim Heffner – another of those retired SRS guys. Jim was a geologist, working primarily in the area of environmental monitoring. Because he is Dr. Jim, he feels qualified to prescribe red wine for all types of disease prevention and mitigation. His self-assessment: “I provide a dull and humorless practicality that is otherwise lacking in the second tenor section”. Jim sings with the choir at St. John’s United Methodist Church as well as with the Masterworks Chorale.

Rick Huston – A former IT guy and retired math teacher, a long time singer, currently singing at St. Paul Lutheran and until he met South Boundary, his number one passion was putting roofs on houses for LATCH, and effort spawned by the need to do something after Hurricane Hugo (the “H” in LATCH.

Ken Hofstetter – retired nuclear chemist from SRS. Ken helped develop instruments and trained first responders in detection of radioactive materials. Can double as a night light. In addition to church and community choruses and theatrical productions, Ken enjoys golf and working with horses on his 60-acre farm.

Gary Ikens – served as a Chinese linguist while in the military. He loves to perform in musical productions but can also be found digging in the dirt tending to his 17 varieties of elephant ears. He will continue his love of travel by going door-to-door as an enumerator for the 2010 census.

Ben Lacy – one of the co-founders of South Boundary and a nuclear engineer at SRS. Ben claims to have been born in a small coastal town in Southern Italy because it looks good in a playbill. He admits to being a musician trapped in an engineer’s body and would rather sing than chase neutrons around all day. Ben provides some guitar and percussion accompaniment for South Boundary.

Mark LeGrand – a fire protection engineer who owns his own company. He plays saxophone and sings with Masterworks Chorale and in the choir at Aiken’s First Baptist Church. He practices South Boundary music at home so much that his two kids have learned the first tenor part and can sub for him at any time, as long as it isn’t past their bedtime.

Charles (Nick) Nickell – another one of those navy nukes, turned into SRS manager. Nick began his singing “career” a few decades ago with the US Naval Academy Glee Club and toured the country many times, performing in venues from Disneyland to the White House. He and his wife Dana have home schooled their 4 children and are proud to say that each of their kids have graduated as Valedictorian from The Nickell Academy!

Jerry Platt – retired PPG executive who filled up 3 passports during his position in global acquisitions and joint ventures. He also spent 18 years managing the company’s open wheel racing program in the PPG IndyCar World Series events, which explains why he drives like Mario Andretti. Most interesting adventures while traveling: holding a lion cub in South Africa and climbing to the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia. Jerry sings in the choir at St. John’s United Methodist Church and spends as much time as possible on the golf course.

Bill Riehl – the other co-founder of South Boundary and an incurable musician. He is a retired geologist and currently enrolled at USCA as a Fine Arts/Music major. His kids get to check homework. He is a member of Aiken’s First Baptist Church choir. Bill has directed barbershop groups in New Orleans, Austin and Aberdeen (Scotland) where he lived for several years. A tour of Scotland this summer with other members of South Boundary will give him a chance to show off his ability to drive on the wrong side of the road and successfully sing for beer in local pubs.

Tony Street – Tony is a retired military guy with an even more important long history as a musician. Church Choir director in the past and now looking to get his hands back in the conducting business with perhaps another boys choir. Tony lives in Augusta and gives us a look into a new market. Welcome Tony in May of 2010.

Bob Stubbs – aka “Baritone Bob”, a former Marine officer and 37-year professional YMCA director. Bob has considerable experience singing with men’s groups, including college glee club, 4 barbershop quartets and a 5-year stint with a performing quartet. He loves to travel and play golf and gets the prize for the most grandchildren – 12!

The group has a repertoire of about 30 songs and can perform as part of a larger event, as we did for the Aiken County Red Cross. We can also produce a stand-alone, hour-long scripted show as we have now done at least three different times. We sing for private functions, in conjunction with other ensembles and hope to run workshops for local choral groups, particularly for young singers. Recognizing the life-long pleasure we get from singing, we wish to share that possibility with others.

We are actively seeking performance opportunities and ways to support choral singing in the Aiken community. Please contact us if you have any ideas.