Cheyenne Symphony Society (Cheyenne, WY)

Conductor Stephen Alltop of the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra takes his bows after the orchestra's performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Photo by Guido Pagnacco

Since 1981, the Cheyenne Symphony Society (CSS) has worked to provide cultural outreach to the city of Cheyenne, Laramie County, and southeastern Wyoming. The Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra presents a five-concert series each season as well as five intimately scaled Hausmusick concerts at the homes of select season members and historic sites throughout the area. The orchestra also offers a four-pronged educational program, Giving the Gift of Music, which serves more than 7,000 youth and adults annually. Specific activities include school visits by visiting guest artists, residency programs with orchestra members, and an art contest in which local art students are invited to respond with visual art projects to selected concerts from the orchestra's season.

	Conductor Stephen Alltop of the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra. Photo by Guido Pagnacco

In FY 2004, CSS received an NEA Creativity grant of $10,000 to support a performance by the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D minor as part of the orchestra's 50th Anniversary season. This symphony was Beethoven's last major work, using Friedrich Schiller's poem Ode to Joy for an unusual, at the time, choral final movement.

Under the direction of conductor Steven Alltop, more than 150 singers from four regional choruses took part in the concert. Participating choruses included the Cheyenne Chamber Singers, the University of Wyoming Collegiate Chorale, the Casper College Chorale, and the Laramie County Community College Chorus. The orchestra and choral musicians performed to a full house of 1,496 at the Cheyenne Civic Center on January 22, 2005.

(From the 2004 NEA Annual Report)

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