Jared Daniels
Staff Writer
The collaboration between the Happy Jacks and the UW Singing Statesmen is meant to show their advocacy for the tradition of male singing in schools.
The tradition of male choirs dates back to the 1800’s, and these groups look to sustain and further that tradition.
“Our goal was to encourage young people to get involved in music,” said former Happy Jacks member Christopher Ruwart.
Ruwart said they would perform across Wyoming and nearby states and further this goal by teaching different techniques and answering questions to students.
The goal will be furthered with the help of conductor and UW Department of Music professor, Nicole Lamartine, who is recognized as an expert in the area of females conducting male choirs.
The Singing Statesmen have had other collaborations with other groups to further the goal of these choirs. Along with the acapella Happy Jacks group, the Singing Statesmen group is a male choir at the university, but is a non-auditioned group.
The Happy Jacks, composed of select Statesmen, and the Singing Statesmen will perform for the first time together. They will perform a variety of songs, stemming from poems of British novelists and classic Italian songs to new versions of more recent songs.
“I continue to use the vocal skills I learned as a member of the Singing Statesmen in my own pursuit of a musical career,” Ruwart said, who said he had the opportunity to be apart of the UW Singing Statesmen. This first time performance will occur today at 7:30 p.m. in the concert hall of the Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets for the event are currently available at the Performing Arts box office and will be sold at the information desk at the Wyoming Union
