San Antonio Choral Society names new director

By Deborah Martin

SAN ANTONIO — Back in May, Jennifer Seighman attended her first
San Antonio Choral Society concert.

She liked what she heard.

“It was an exciting, energetic performance,” she said of the
choir’s concert of Robert Ray’s “Gospel Mass.” “It looked like they
were excited to be there, and they were really getting into the
piece. You could tell that it was maybe not one of their standard
pieces, but they still carried it across very, very well.”

Seighman will be getting a much more intimate sense of the
community chorus’ work in the months ahead. She was recently named
the group’s artistic director and conductor, following Aaron Hufty,
who left in May after five years in the role to accept a position
at Baylor University.

One of her first tasks was to select the program for next
season; next on the list is auditions for the group’s forthcoming
47th season.

Hufty’s departure was a bit of a surprise, but the society was
able to mobilize quickly and put out the call about the open
position.

“We had a fair number of potential candidates that got narrowed
down to three or four, two of whom we auditioned ourselves, and
they were both very, very good candidates,” said society President
Barb Dauerty. “For a couple of reasons, we decided that Jennifer
was the better fit for us. … It was a pretty easy decision after
we worked with her for a little while.”

Dauerty, an alto who joined the society in 2005, got the chance
to work with Seighman during her conducting audition and was
impressed by her.

“She’s very energetic,” Dauerty said. “She spent a long time
kind of finding out who we were, which was something I didn’t
anticipate, but it was certainly refreshing. And she’s also fairly
transparent — she gave us a lot of information about herself in the
way that she ran the auditions.”

Seighman, who grew up in upstate New York, has been in San
Antonio about two years. She and her husband, Gary Seighman, were
drawn here by some professional opportunities. Her husband heads
the choral programs at Trinity University, and she’s been active
all over town.

In addition to her new post, she is the organist at Travis Park
United Methodist Church, teaches choir at Atonement Academy and is
active with the local chapter of the American Guild of
Organists.

The soprano, who is wrapping up her doctoral studies, said she
has loved singing since she was a kid.

“I couldn’t see myself doing anything but that,” she said. “I’m
fortunate that I was able to take a hobby and turn it into a career
and be doing something I love to do.”

Moving forward with the choral society, she would like to
explore collaborations with other groups and artists in the
community.

“My vision is to strive to achieve high artistic standards while
continuing to explore new and old repertoire in fresh and exciting
ways,” she said.