Our History

The Counterparts were formed in 1960 as successors to a group called "The Roaring Twenty" which in turn went back to "The Music Crafters" who put on Broadway Musicals in the 1950's.

In the early days, many of its members came from the Savoy Company, Philadelphia's noted Gilbert and Sullivan group. Currently, we have three ex-Savoyards.

The Counterparts were the creation of Hugh Hanson, who was director and principal arranger from the beginning until 1987. Hugh’s successor as director was Ed Schultheiss who came directly from Penn where he had been the director of an undergraduate a cappella group called, by coincidence, The Counterparts. Our director from 1991 to 2001 was Bob Rowland, senior music master at the Shipley School. Lisa Bennett, graduate of James Madison University and mother of three, had been our director for 24 years until she retired.  Our current director, Joseph Rippert, started with us in 2024, and is currently at Temple University for his graduate studies in music.

Our big annual event is Spring Sing, a formal annual gathering of ten US based a cappella groups from as North as Maine down to Washington DC, and west to Detroit, Chicago and Denver. Starting in 1957, it has been hosted by each member group in rotation. We hosted the 50th Spring Sing in Philadelphia, PA in 2007, then hosted in Wilmington, DE in 2014, and will be hosting in Valley Forge, PA in 2027. The Counterparts are the senior group still participating, having first performed as "The Roaring Twenty" in 1962. 

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The Counterparts were inactive from 1967 until 1982 after all but two of the men were transferred out of the area. By coincidence several old members returned to the area in 1978, and by 1982 the Counterparts were asked back to Spring Sing 25 as a guest group. In 1985 we became the only group ever to return to Spring Sing. For a few years we were both the senior and junior group at Spring Sing, which confused everybody, but makes a great story.