Anderson High School Choirs

The Choral Department is a diverse unit in the Performing Arts Department at Anderson High School, and has a rich history of excellence that dates almost all the way back to the earliest years of the school's existence.

Mary Ruth Palmer was an Anderson native, and a graduate of the Indiana University School of Music. She was named the Choral Director and Chairperson of the Music Department of Anderson High School in 1943. During her time at AHS, she led her students to a great appreciation of high quality choral music, and saw that choral program gained local, regional, and even national recognition.

Groups under leadership were invited to perform at countless local events such a club and association meetings, and the choral concerts were always sold out events. During her tenure, several of the AHS choirs were invited to perform at many regional and national conferences. She was an active and highly regarded clinician in the state of Indiana, and served in the leadership in many of the professional organizations for music educators and conductors. She was president of the Indiana Music Educators Assocation, and served on the Board of Directors of the American Choral Directors Association.

Mary Ruth Palmer became ill in 1959, and after a hospitalization passed away in 1960. She left a legacy behind in her students and the community she served.

Richard Seaver was a graduate of Ball State Teachers College, and was first the band director at Knightstown High School, where his group took first place at the Delaware County Fair Marching Band Competition. Never one to do things in a small way, Seaver had his band perform selections from the Broadway musical Showboat, which included a life-size paddle boat on which some of the members stood and performed as it "floated" down the track.

In 1960, he was named Choral Director of the AHS Choral Department, and continued his "go big, or go home" approach to teaching choral music. After Mary Ruth Palmer, he realized he had big shoes to fill, and despite his elfish five-foot-five frame, he did exactly that. During his early years at AHS he carried on with challenging his students with high level choral repertoire, which eventually developed into the tradition of bringing the Indianapolis Symphony to AHS to perform Handel's Messiah with the Choral Club for the annual holiday concert. He also maintained and bolstered the tradition of the Madrigal Singers with featuring them in an annual madrigal feast, which became the quintessential way for people of the community to begin their holiday season each year.

When the "swing choir" craze began to take hold, Seaver was at the forefront of the movement and was historically regarded as a cultivator and innovator of the art form that eventually became known as show choir. Borrowing the name Singers Unlimited from his favorite vocal jazz group from the 1970s, he developed the Anderson High School Singers Unlimited into a powerhouse show choir that at its inception, made an immediate impact. 1975 saw the inaugural Bishop Luers Show Choir Invitational. It was THE contest in the state of Indiana; choirs had to submit an audition tape to be considered for an invitation, and then had to make it through a preliminary round during the day to qualify for the evening final competition, which was broadcast live on television. In 1981, the finals were taped by PBS and were later broadcast across the nation.

In "history repeating" fashion harkening back to his time at Knightstown High School, Seaver and the Singers Unlimited performed selections Godspell one of the hottest Broadway shows of the day, complete with backdrop and characterized costumes to better tell the story. The judges and audience were blown away that night, and the group took the top prize. It is due to this moment that Seaver and the Singers Unlimited are regarded as the very first show choir to ever stage a "story show" that eventually became a main-stay in the competitive show choir arena. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s Seaver led the Singers Unlimited to national acclaim by competing at several national level festivals and appearing as the headlining entertainment at the National Association of Secondary School Principals in mid-1980s.

In 1989 Seaver hired Ball State University Singers member Damon Brown as the Singers Unlimited's Choreographer, and in the words of Seaver himself, "decided to go big time." A schedule of competitions for the Singers Unlimited was established, and the Singers Unlimited entered what many Indiana choral directors refer to as the "Circuit," a series of high school show choir competitions that would begin each year in mid-late February and end in late March. It was during this time that the Singers Unlimited truly developed its reputation as a seriously competitive group.

In 1997 Anderson High School closed the doors to its 1301 Lincoln Street location, and merged with Madison Heights High School at 4610 S. Madison Ave. After 37 years of being the Choral Director at AHS, Mr. Seaver was faced with the decision of whether to retire, or keep teaching. He decided to keep working at made the move to the "new" building, where he remained until the year 2000. It was during these last three years that he took the Singers Unlimited and the new all female group Class Act to compete at the Show Stoppers national show choir invitational at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida and at Disneyland in Anaheim California, where they took top honors two or the three years. After leading the AHS Choral Department for 40 years, Mr. Seaver left the directorship of the department in 2000, but kept working as a music educator until 2004.

Bryce Mallernee, a graduate of Frankton High School and Ball State University, took over as the head choral director at Anderson High School in the year 2000.

He worked hard to maintain the legacy left behind by Rick Seaver, and to expand the reach of the Choral Department to new audiences in the local community and beyond.

Alan Alder, and AHS graduate took over the program in the fall of 2002. The Singers Unlimited's first big performance that year was the famed Bluffton Street Fair, where they took the 2nd place trophy.

Under Alder's direction, the choral department flourished; in the year 2002 there were 200 students enrolled, and by 2005 there were almost 500. Many of these students made time in their busy academic schedule to participate in more than one choir; it was standard for the members of the Chamber Choir or Madrigal Singers to also be in one of the show choirs.

In 2005 the Singers Unlimited worked extremely hard and enjoyed a very rewarding season - they presented what became known on the circuit as the "Lion King Show," which contained many innovations that pushed the boundaries of the show choir art form. The concert choirs also began competing at many contests around the state and were awarded top honors at many of them.

The annual Madrigal Dinners were also revived during this time, and proved to be a major fundraising event for the entire Choral Department. In 2007, Alder initiated the A-Town Showdown, the department's own show choir competition, and in that first year 20 groups attended.

Alder left the AHS Faculty in the fall of 2008, and was named the director of the Ball State University Singers, and began studies toward a doctorate in choral conducting, which he achieved in 2012. Alder served on the BSU faculty from 2008 until 2022.

Julie Elder-Wood became the Director of the AHS Choral Department in 2010, after working as a co-choral director at East Side Junior High in Anderson.

In 2010 the other high school in Anderson, Highland High School, merged with Anderson High School, and after a 2-year hiatus, the AHS Choral Department was revived - especially the competitive show choirs. The 2011 competition shows were designed to honor the traditions of the groups from the three high schools that existed in Anderson - the Anderson Singers Unlimited, the Highland Singers, and the Madison Heights Highliters. Under Wood's leadership the groups experienced name changes... the Singers Unlimited became Vocal Infusion, and Class Act became Vocal Elegance.

Although the AHS Choral Department had previously hosted the A-Town Showdown in 2007 & 2008, Wood favored bringing back the Singsational... the show choir competition that annually took place at Highland High School. The competition was successful and did a great deal to support the AHS Choral Department.

After getting the AHS Choral Department back on track and having several years of success, Wood and her family moved back to her home state of Iowa to be near her mother and siblings.

Kirstin Lindhurst was named Director of Choral Activities at Anderson High School in 2018, and left AHS at the end of the 2020-2021 academic year to pursue other interests, get married, and have a family.

Hannah Olson was named Assistant Choral Director during the tenure of Julie Wood, and remained in the position until Lindhurst's departure in 2021.

Kendra Shaff Kirby, a graduate of Indiana State University took over being the head choral director at Anderson High School for one year in 2021 and departed in the spring of 2022.

Jackie List, was hired as the Assistant Choral Director in the spring of 2022, was promoted to Director of Choral Activities soon after Kirby's departure. Immediately after her promotion to the top job, Alan Alder returned to AHS to be her assistant. Although moderately successful in her role as the head director, List resigned the position in the spring of 2023.

Alan Alder was promoted to the Director of Choral Activities in the spring of 2023 and immediately began making plans to reignite the choral program, which was still suffering post-Covid effects of low personnel numbers which resulted in a limited number of talented students from which to populate the choirs.

To signify a move to look forward while honoring the very rich traidition of the past, the name of the competing mixed show choir, Vocal Infusion, was changed back to Singers Unlimited, and the name of the women's competing show choir was changed to Starliters, the name made famous by Debbie Andis, the Choral Director at Highland High School.

With this new beginning, the choirs of AHS once again became an ever present part of the conversation among the most avid, tried and true fans of show choir. Both groups won many caption awards (Best Vocals, Best Choreography, Best Crew, and Best Band) as well as several Grand Champion awards in the 2023-2024 season.

Kamryn Yenser joined the faculty of the AHS Choral Department as the Assistant Director of Choral Activities in the fall of 2024. She holds the Bachelor Degree in Music Education from Ball State University, and was a member of the world-renowned Ball State University Singers. She made her Carnegie Hall debut in May of 2022.