Choir alumni return for special visit, share fond memories of Liberty’s early years

Liberty University’s campus as it is today only existed as a dream in the late 70s and 80s. Members of the Chamber Choir, one of the school’s main singing groups, would rehearse in an old building located near where Williams Stadium currently sits and their music professors worked out of offices not much larger than closets.

The choir certainly did not have a state-of-the-art, 1,600-seat concert hall to perform in nor 50 practice rooms and 43 teaching studios in which to hone their craft. But last week, alumni who were members of the choir any time from 1978 to 1988 got to see the vision they had learned about become reality.

“It’s amazing to see the school now compared with when we attended,” said choir alumna Lisa Reynolds (’82). “The buildings are incredible. When we were here, there was a small building that we would use for music. There was not much around. It’s pretty cool to come back and see Liberty now.”

The group of 14 toured the Center for Music and the Worship Arts on Friday as part of a choir reunion. The building was completed in 2016.

In the 1980s, the choir traveled to the British Isles every other summer for a three-week trip. During their time abroad, the choir performed at churches while also taking time to explore the beauty of another country.

Renas’ wife, Jane, was part of the tour group.

“My husband’s vision was for the members of the choir to leave Liberty and bring excellent musical abilities to the various churches they ended up working for,” she said. “They have done that so well in their time since leaving the choir and the university.”

At the beginning of each semester, new students and current members would audition with hopes of becoming part of the 30-member group.

“He was so good at teaching the students to sing as one voice,” Jane Renas said. “He wasn’t necessarily looking for the most talented voice but, more so, the one who would blend in the best with the team.”

Multiple choir alumni said that the friendships they made amongst their fellow members are still some of their most coveted relationships today.

“Years later, those friendships that I made back in the late 70s and early 80s are still some of my closest friendships,” Reynolds said. “Kim Renas taught us that we were family. Even members of the choir that came after my husband and I graduated have become good friends of ours because of the choir reunions that we have every other year.”

The excellence that Kim Renas instilled in the choir has continued on throughout the years at Liberty and now through the School of Music’s Worship Choirs, University Chorale, Concert Choir, and Chamber Singers.

“The type of music we were trained to sing was difficult to perfect,” Reynolds’ husband, Greg (’83), said. “But because our voices were trained to sing with such excellence, we were then able to sing any type of music after that.”