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CEDAR CITY — A Utah singer recently was named female vocalist and entertainer of the year by the North America Country Music Associations, International for the second year in a row.
Chenille Saunders, of Cedar City, competed in the gospel music category last month in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. She sang several songs including “How Great Thou Art” to take home the honors.
“It was exciting, it was really fun,” she said.
She is planning a victory concert April 28 at Cedar High School at 7 p.m. The concert also will feature visual art and musical entertainment from several Cedar High School Students.
Tickets are $8 for adults and $5 for students, and the concert will include the songs she performed in Pigeon Forge as well as a variety of other songs, she said.
Originally from Logan, Saunders began her classical training at age 12 when she started taking opera singing lessons.
During a childhood trip to California, Saunders stood up on a table and started singing “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, she recalled.
“Everybody loved it but my parents,” Saunders said. “I always joke that that’s where I got my start.”
Saunders and her family moved to Carthage, Illinois — a small town near Nauvoo — and lived there for 14 years. While in Illinois, Saunders started and owned two performing arts schools.
She returned to Utah with her family about 9 months ago and is now living in Cedar City.
Saunders said she loves teaching and connecting communities to their youths. By including talent from Cedar High School in her concert, she hopes to make it not just about her, but also about her community.
“I want the kids to see that the community is supporting you,” Saunders said. “They want to support you. I’m hoping that’s what will happen.”
Saunders has taken on a handful of students in Cedar City, but she is hoping to move on to doing larger-scale master classes for people who want to learn about music.
“I love to teach, I love to watch people grow,” she said.
The ideal situation would be to teach a master class and perform a concert during the week, and then perform at a church on Sundays, she said.
Saunders plans to head out on tour of the west coast and Pacific Northwest in the fall. She said she is looking for more venues to come, and she is willing to go out of her way to find a place to sing.
“I want (people) to know that I am open to coming out to do whatever,” she said. “When your goal is to inspire people it doesn’t matter if that’s one or 1,000.”
More information is available at chenillesaunders.com.
