The Cheyenne Chamber Singers are celebrating their 35th season this year. Wyoming Public Media’s Grady Kirkpatrick spoke with artistic director and conductor Sean Ambrose about their upcoming concert on Nov. 23 and about how the Chamber Singers got started.
Editor’s Note: This conversation has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
Sean Ambrose: Cheyenne Chamber Singers was originally founded as a Dickens Chorus for a production of “Amahl and the Night Visitors” by Cheyenne Theater Players. The very first time that the group performed was at that performance at the Historic Atlas Theater in Cheyenne. Dr. Jane Iverson, who taught at LCCC [Laramie County Community College] for many years and has been an active musician in our community for decades, founded the group.
And then after that production of “Amahl,” formed the Chamber Singers formally, and we have been singing for 35 years at this point. I started singing with the group in its second year and sang with them for about 20 years and have been conducting for about 15 now.
Grady Kirkpatrick: Wow. And how many members?
SA: We have floated anywhere from 28 to up to about 40. This year we're sitting at 31 singers, plus myself and an accompanist.
GK: And I'm guessing there's a lot of longtime members. And how frequently do you get new members?
SA: We do auditions virtually every year. The people that sing with chamber singers commit to the entire season, so I usually do auditions in the summer.
I've got three or four singers that have been with us [for] 25-plus years. I've got one brand new one this year, actually, a Laramie native that joined us this year, and every year we seem to get a couple folks say, ‘Okay, time to retire,’ or, ‘I'm moving,’ and a few new voices coming in.
GK: Tell us about the upcoming performance on November 23.
SA: We've got a concert that is going to blend sort of the autumn and the seasonal change for the first half of the concert, and then sort of lean into the holidays, more Advent than Christmas, maybe, for the second half. Because of the timing right there before Thanksgiving, [we] didn't wanna do a full blown Christmas concert.
GK: Right.
SA: But [we] wanted to at least do some of that.
GK: We have a selection. Tell us about Bob Chilcott’s “For Him All Stars Have Shown.”
SA: This piece was commissioned by Cheyenne Chamber Singers along with the [Cheyenne] All-City Children's Chorus back in 2001. Bob Chilcott was an original founder of The King’s Singers. People will remember that group.
This is a piece that's been in our repertoire ever since then. [A] beautiful song with poetry by Elizabeth Jennings, who was a British writer, a poet in the mid-1900s.
GK: Another piece in the upcoming concert is called “Highland Carol.” Tell us about that one.
SA: “Highland Carol” was originally titled “A Christmas Carmen.” Ben Holloway was a friend of Jane's, someone that she had worked with, and this was our very first commission that we did for the Cheyenne Chamber Singers.
It is a text that combines a lullaby and is very rhythmic. Ben's writing takes a lot of African rhythms and some of the South American styles. This particular one is a lullaby that reflects the Christmas spirit.
GK: The upcoming performance takes place at St. Mark's Church, correct?
SA: That's correct.
GK: Is that where most or all of the performances take place?
SA: We try and use a variety of venues in Cheyenne and around the region. St. Mark's is a place we have performed many times. But we try and do a mix of sacred and secular space, and our programming reflects that as well.
GK: I expect the acoustics are pretty good in the church.
SA: They're pretty great there in that particular space.
GK: We may have time for another selection of [Sergei] Rachmaninoff. Tell us about this one.
SA: “Bogoroditse Devo” by Rachmaninoff is one of the absolute classics of choral literature. It's been performed by virtually every professional and collegiate choir, community choirs. It's part of a series of songs that was part of the “All Night Vigil,” which Chamber singers did the full set many years ago.
But this work, the English translation of this is “Rejoice, O Virgin.” So it is leaning into Advent, of course, but not specifically Christmas. Beautiful acapella writing by Rachmaninoff. We are doing it in Russian. Don't ask me to do the translation of everything.
GK: Cheyenne Chamber Singer's performance coming up: As Seasons Change, Songs of Harvest and Holiday. It's November 23, 3:00 p.m. at St. Mark's Church in Cheyenne. I've been talking with Sean Ambrose about the 35th anniversary season, and you've got some upcoming performances as well, right?
SA: We do. Along with our performance on the 23, we are going to be joining the Children's Chorus for their concert on December 6, and then we will be doing a joint holiday performance with the Cheyenne Symphony [Orchestra], with the Children's Chorus, En Avant Dance Studios and Cheyenne Chamber Singers on December 13 at the Cheyenne Civic Center.
