Charles Fold

Charles Lee Fold, of Cincinnati, Ohio,(born on June 4, 1938, in the African American suburb of Lincoln Heights, died April 7, 2006) As a child, Fold taught himself to play piano. In the 1950s, he parlayed that skill into an assignment accompanying James Cleveland and the Meditation Singers of Detroit. Fold later secured formal piano instruction at the University of Cincinnati’s Conservatory of Music. By age 22, he was accompanying the Cincinnati Youth and Young Adult Choral Unit. For decades, Fold was an active member of James Cleveland’s Gospel Music Workshop of America, serving as president of the Cincinnati chapter, board member of the national organization and co-chairman of the international chapters. The Charles Fold Singers were inducted into the International Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2002.