Arranging the Next Movement
Barbara Chamberlin’s Jenni House Residency
This article originally appeared in the May 21 issue of What’s Up Yukon.
Sunlight streams through the trees outside Chambers House in Whitehorse. Barbara Chamberlin, hair still damp from a morning shower, settles in at the keyboard. The laughter of children from the Shipyards Park playground filters through the walls of the 1925 building, which houses the Jenni House Artist Residency during the colder months. Winter shutters remain locked over the windows, which casts the interior in a gentle dimness that feels somewhat like a cocoon.
“You can smell it,” Barbara says with a laugh, referring to the musty sweetness of the old log structure. “I’m going to bring some candles down.”
Despite the chill, Barbara emanates warmth in a flowery dress paired with sneakers. Her fingers hover over the keys before coaxing out a few melodies. The cabin seems to exhale, as though it’s been waiting for this.
Almost exactly one year since Barbara took her final bow as conductor of the Whitehorse Community Choir, she is opening a new chapter in her lifelong musical journey. As the May Artist in Residence at Chambers House, she’s crafting something of her own: arrangements of four songs for choir performance, two from local songwriters and two she composed herself.
“When you go into a song and start to arrange it, you listen and go, ‘Oh, that’s what it needs,’” Barbara explains, her hands animated as she speaks. “It’s like when sculptors see a stone and already visualize the face within it.”
The songs she’s selected each carry a distinctive character. “Back to the Water” by Nick de Graf will become a “very rhythmic piece,” while her own “Cowboy Moon” is evolving into “a very smooth, beautiful ambient piece.” She’s also working on Nicole Edwards’ “Widow’s Waltz” and contemplating options for the fourth arrangement.
For Barbara, whose musical journey began at age seven in Oregon under the influence of her choir-director father, this residency represents both a return and a new beginning. Her career has encompassed everything from conducting to composing film scores, from performing for American troops in Japan to playing for Prince (now King) Charles.
She’s created four full-length albums, with a fifth underway. Her song “Highway of Heartache” even cracked the top 100 on the country music charts.
But now, after the weight of pandemic isolation and the completion of her tenure with the choir, Barbara finds herself seeking something that feels surprisingly familiar — the freedom and wonder she remembers from her early days as an artist.
“You always want to feel like you did in your 20s, where that wonder and innocence of what you haven’t written yet is all there for you,” she reflects. “Well, now I’m on the other side, and I still want that.”
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The Jenni House Residency offers precisely the conditions to nurture this return to creative innocence. Operated by a collective of five local arts organizations (ArtsNet, Yukon Arts Centre, Yukon Film Society, Jazz Yukon, and Music Yukon), the program has hosted approximately 200 artists since its inception in 2015. According to Janet Patterson, Outreach Coordinator for Jenni House, it provides a crucial service to creators.
“It’s such a gift to be able to go somewhere, even if it’s your own hometown,” Patterson explains. “You’re not surrounded by all the other distractions of normal life. You can just focus, and it’s amazing how much you can accomplish and develop as an artist.”
For Barbara, the absence of Wi-Fi and household responsibilities creates the perfect container for concentration. In this sanctuary beside the Yukon River, she can take walks when she needs a break and return to her arrangements with a fresh perspective.
“I think real artists wouldn’t let AI take over their art,” she says. For her, composition has always been an organic process — sometimes beginning with melody, sometimes with words, sometimes with rhythms or chord progressions.
“I write a lot in the car,” she says, describing long drives between Vancouver and Whitehorse where melodies emerge. “I don’t need to have a piano to write. I don’t need to have a guitar. I figure if you can’t remember the melody, maybe it’s not worth remembering.”
In her decades of musicianship, Barbara has learned both sides of performance — the reading of notes and playing by ear. Mastering both took years, but having “both in your pocket is a really great thing,” as she puts it. This duality seems emblematic of where Barbara stands now: honoured for her past achievements while still hungrily pursuing new creative pathways.
At Chambers House, surrounded by the echoes of Yukon history, Barbara is finding her way forward by rediscovering what drew her to music in the first place. “Music has always been magic for me,” she says as the afternoon light catches her eyes.
As part of her residency, Barbara will eventually hold a public outreach event, continuing the tradition that has connected approximately 6,000 people with Jenni House artists over the years. But for now, in these quiet May days, she’s immersed in the private alchemy of arrangement — transforming existing songs into something new, just as she’s transforming herself.
After a few photos by the river, Barbara returns to the old log house. The sun has shifted. A new melody comes from inside, and mingles with the scent of old timber and spring warmth. In this moment, the wonder she’s seeking doesn’t seem far away at all.
“When you write a song,” she says, “you always have a choice.”
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Reading and Listening
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth.
Listening to Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport. While this 2016 book feels a little outdated with the advent of generative AI, it contains some core principles, and fascinating questions, that seem to become even more true.
Quote of the Week
“We begin to understand the goal of life is to die young — as late as possible!”
— Ashley Montagu