UW launches free concert series across Albany County this June

Free chamber music will move beyond the University of Wyoming campus this month, with the Castleman Quartet Program West, known as CQPW, bringing faculty recitals, young artist concerts and community performances into places Albany County residents already use. Every performance in the inaugural series is free and open to the public, starting Saturday, June 6, at 7:30 p.m. in the Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts recital hall.

The schedule gives the series a public footprint that is unusually broad for a university music program. After the opening faculty and guest chamber music recital on June 6, CQPW returns Thursday, June 11, at 7:30 p.m. for a Deering Quartet recital, then Saturday, June 13, at 7:30 p.m. for a viola faculty recital. On Monday, June 15, the program reaches beyond campus and into the community twice, with a noon performance at Laramie County Library in Cheyenne and a 6 p.m. musical cocktail hour at Backwards Distillery in Laramie. Young artist chamber groups then are scheduled for noon Tuesday, June 16, at Albany County Library in Laramie, 310 S. 8th St.

The series returns to the Buchanan Center recital hall on Wednesday, June 17, for another faculty chamber music recital. Young artist sonata concerts follow Thursday and Friday, June 18-19, with a final young artist sonata concert listed for Saturday, June 20, at 3 p.m. The opening program includes Ravel, Bartók and Mendelssohn, and later concerts add Haydn, Beethoven, Price, Montgomery, Schubert, Rota and Rachmaninov, giving local audiences a range of chamber music styles across two weeks.

That spread matters in a county where access often comes down to location and cost. The Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts houses a 100-seat Recital Hall and a 600-seat Concert Hall, and UW describes the building as a hub for live entertainment and community connection. For families, students and longtime residents who would not normally buy a ticket to this kind of performance, the free admission removes the biggest barrier before a note is played.

The program also carries weight because of who is behind it. The Castleman Quartet Program was founded in 1970 by violinist Charles Castleman and has long focused on intensive study, collaboration and performance for advanced string players. This year’s lineup includes John Gilbert, a professor of violin at Texas Tech University School of Music and concertmaster of the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra for 13 seasons; John Fadial, a University of Wyoming violin professor; Beth Vanderborgh, a UW faculty cellist and principal cellist of the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra; and Renée Skerik, an instructor at Interlochen Arts Academy and former violist of the Artaria String Quartet.

The timing also fits into a busy public calendar at Albany County Public Library, whose 2026 Summer Reading Program begins June 6. In a summer season often dominated by road work, weather updates and routine civic business, CQPW gives Albany County a different kind of public event, one that puts high-level chamber music within reach of anyone willing to walk in.