Cowboys, Sing On! took place in the Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts over Friday, March 3 and 4. The concert was a chance for middle and highschool students to perform with older musicians and some of the university’s choral directors.
The festival featured a host of vocal performance groups from across campus, including UW’s Civic Choir, Contemporary Singers, Bel Canto, Happy Jacks, Singing Statesmen, and Collegiate Chorale. 100 students from across Chyenne, Laramie, Upton and Greybull school districts joined the university singers .
Dr. Susan Vollbrecht, Associate Director of Choral Activities/Music Education at the University of Wyoming, spoke about the significance of the afternoon’s first song, an Andre J. Thomas arrangement of Langston Hughes famous poem I Dream A World.
“It’s really a song to really think about what kind of world we want to live in. As we’ve been working with the future of the world [younger generations in the middle and high school groups], we just had such a lovely time.”
This song was followed by a rendition of Let the River Run, written by Carly Simon for the 1990 hit Sitcom Working Girl. This piece featured UW percussionists of the Jazz Ensemble and syncopated vocal lines giving a slight latin influence to the classic song.
More classics were performed by UW’s student-led groups, the Contemporary Singers and Happy Jacks. The Contemporary Singers performed the haunting American Standard Nature Boy, featuring a solo by Sage Hanson. The group ended with an upbeat take on Kirby Shaw’s arrangement of Route 66.
UW’s Happy Jacks, a tenor-bass ensemble, performed an uptempo take on Billy Joel’s For The Longest Time and Some Nights by the band F.U.N., which took the third spot on the Billboard Hot 100 list in 2012.
Bel Canto is a women’s chorus which highlighted works written for female voices across the centuries. Led by Vollbrecht, the chorus performed By the Rivers of Babylon by Susan Brumfield and a song by Kim Baryluk entitled Warrior, which Vollbrecht felt was especially important for the group to perform.
“It is a song that is about speaking up when we see things that we need to speak up about. The journey that a young person has in acquiring that strength of mind and spirit to be able to say those messages that need to be spoken.”
The Singing Statesmen and UW’s Collegiate Chorale performed additional traditional choir works of She Walks in Beauty and Andrea Ramsey’s uplifting On This Road. They were joined by bass and tenor members of the younger participant groups.
This collaboration between the UW and Wyoming students was a highlight of the event experience for Vollbrecht. She said,
“I loved the positive energy this choral collaboration created for singers. It is a unique experience for both secondary and university students to come together and share their love of singing and learn from each other during two days of rehearsals.”
The evening closed with I Sing Because I’m Happy, Dr. Vollbrecht’s favorite piece performed that day.
“What a positive message for singers to take home after such a rich and rewarding community singing event showcasing intergenerational voices,” she said.
“The songs were empowering, and students all sang with such spirit. It is a true delight to see strangers come together through music – a unique community experience. These events are important bridges between Wyoming secondary students and our Music Department.”
“I believe the smiles on the singers’ faces after the last note was sung demonstrated their overall feelings of accomplishments.
