Jefferson City native wins Grammy

Sarah Tannehill Anderson poses Monday evening at the Grammy Awards, where she and other members of the Kansas City Chorale accepted their second Grammy in three years.
Sarah Tannehill Anderson poses Monday evening at the Grammy Awards, where she and other members of the Kansas City Chorale accepted their second Grammy in three years.

Jefferson City native Sarah Tannehill Anderson has gone from singing in Jefferson City High School groups to accepting her second Grammy Award earlier this week.

On Monday, she and other members of the Kansas City Chorale accepted their second Grammy in three years at the annual music awards ceremony at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles.

Since she left her hometown of Jefferson City, Tannehill Anderson has become an acclaimed singer performing with groups throughout the U.S.

A member of the Kansas City Chorale group for 11 years, Tannehill Anderson watched as Charles Bruffy, the artistic director, accepted the Grammy Award on the group's behalf. The award was for best choral performance and given at a special ceremony held prior to the live prime-time broadcast.

The Kansas City Chorale performed with the Phoenix Chorale, where Bruffy is also artistic director, on the recording of "Rachmaninoff: All-Night Vigil," one of the Russian composer's most significant a cappella choral compositions. The two groups recorded the performance at St. Peter's Cathedral in Kansas City, Kansas.

Tannehill Anderson and her husband, Sam - who sings bass in the Kansas City Chorale, which is how they met - basked in that achievement as they enjoyed the live broadcast show from the nose-bleed seats in the Staples Center.

"We could see everything going on, and to see it live is amazing," she said. "You experience all the elements that you miss watching it on television. We loved all the acts, and the stage and design was really modern-looking and much more succinct and clean than the ceremony I attended three years ago."

A featured soloist on "Life and Breath: Choral Works of Rene Clausen," Tannehill Anderson was in Los Angeles when that recording from the Kansas City Chorale won a Grammy, too.

"That was a very proud moment for me and very exciting as it was the first Grammy our group we received, but this time was very poignant because were being honored for singing "Rachmaninoff,'" said Tannehill Anderson, in a phone interview from Kansas City.

She and her husband returned to their home in the Union Hill area of the city, a pre-Civil War neighborhood just south of Crown Center, Tuesday night and were tired from attending the afterparty at the nearby Los Angeles Convention Center along with thousands of revelers.

"There was lots of good food and all kinds of celebrities. Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters was so close to me that I could feel the whoosh of his long hair," she said. "I tried to be cool; I didn't want to be that girl (a crazed fan)."

She first performed with the 24-member KC Chorale Group after receiving her master's degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music. Her undergraduate degree came from Missouri State University in Springfield, where she initially majored in violin but quickly switched to voice. She went on to perform with companies in Germany and in Philadelphia and Boston, as well as with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and is in high demand today.

"We don't do anything else but sing, rehearse and come home. Well, not really," she joked. "The music scene here is unbelievable, with classical, jazz and indie pop rock. I, along with other friends, keep very busy with performances."

She's also a member of Bach Aria Soloists and the Lyric Arts Trio, which performed at the Miller Performing Arts Center in Jefferson City several years ago, and she enjoyed being back in town. The daughter of Pam and the late Lex Tannehill, she started playing piano when she was 5 years old. She also played violin and was a concert master of orchestra at JCHS and very involved in choir.

She remains close with several classmates, including Helen Tergin, a dermatologist, who was in her 1992 graduating class at JCHS.

"Sarah has an amazing voice and is so talented. I am so proud of her. There is no one more deserving of a Grammy," Tergin said.

Tannehill Anderson is still friends with Matthew Linsenbardt, now a doctor in St. Louis.

"We invited Matthew and his wife, Kathy Doan, to come with us to the Grammy Awards this year, and we had so much fun. It was so great that they got to celebrate with us," she said.

"Every time something great like this happens, I think about my time in Jefferson City, especially about my high school choir directors David Gillespie and (the late) Carl Burkel. I'm still a choral singer, and I wouldn't be doing this without them," she said. "I also would be nowhere without my piano teacher from Jefferson City."