Backwards Distillery composes new liqueur for Wyoming Symphony’s 75th anniversary

CASPER, Wyo. — Name any Casper arts organization that deserves to raise a toast on its anniversary, and the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra would likely be near the top.

The orchestra is celebrating its 75th anniversary this concert season, even if the actual humble origin dates are a bit blurred. At any rate, the orchestra’s management and board decided it would be a great idea to ask Casper’s Backwards Distilling Company to help out.

“We said that for our 75th, we want something celebratory that we can use throughout the season,” said WSO executive director and CEO Rebecca Hebert.

Backwards Distilling co-owner Amber Pollock has a long history with the WSO, first as a member of the string section while in high school, then in college as she studied for a master’s in music education, and again last year after she won a community vote to guest-conduct a piece during the orchestra’s Pops in the Park event. The distillery has been a supporter of the orchestra for years now.

“It was a little more than a year now that the symphony came to us with the idea to make some sort of product to commemorate their 75th anniversary,” she said. There was no directive in particular, other than something that felt celebratory and festive. “We had just done a whiskey for the Troopers, so I kind of wanted to take a different approach,” she said.

After talks with the board and staff, she decided on the idea of a liqueur that could be mixed into celebratory cocktails. “We wanted something that was kind of elegant and could be mixed with champagne or club soda, to give it that effervescence for a nice celebratory beverage, she said.” She also aimed for something that could be versatile, but was unique enough to stand out from current products already on shelves.

“So we landed on a black currant and lemon liqueur, which I think turned out super well,” she said.

Black currant was once popular in older cocktails, but a second flavor was needed to make it special. “We tried a variety of different things, like vanilla and ginger, but the brightness of lemon was really lovely and played well with all sorts of different flavors.”

To make a liqueur, they started with a neutral base spirit and — after a lot of trial and error — landed on the right mixture of flavors and sweeteners to accompany it.

They ended up christening the unique product Rhapsody 75. “I love the idea because of the tie-in to the 75th anniversary, and it just kind of ties again into those vintage cocktails, like the French 75, which makes me think of a champagne cocktail.”

The liqueur will make its debut this week at the WSO’s celebration and fundraiser, titled Prelude, which takes place at the historic M on Thursday, Sept. 19 from 6 to 8:30 p.m. The event will feature cocktails, live entertainment, food and auctions that benefit the orchestra. The liqueur will also be on sale at area liquor stores and at Backwards’s downtown tasting room.

The orchestra traces its roots to the 1920s, when a group of musicians wanted to gather and make music together, according to Hebert.

There were a number of name changes before activity paused during WWII. “During that time there was no form of civic or symphony orchestra here, and then it came back,” she said. The orchestra reorganized as the Casper Symphony Orchestra after the war, but there’s still technically some confusion on the orchestra’s age. “We incorporated in 1948, which means somebody counted wrong somewhere,” she said. “We did our 70th five years ago, so we’re staying with that.”

Because of the lack of institutional knowledge and tight budgets, the organization has never had a complete archive of its activities over the decades. Since they’ve never had a dedicated concert hall with their own recording equipment, there are precious few historic recordings. Therefore, the organization has worked closely with the Casper College Western History Center to amass as much history and archive material as they can gather in recent years. They are also producing an anniversary video, with interviews of former and current musicians and a historic overview. The video will premiere on April 5, before their spring concert performance, she said.

This 75th anniversary season will also be the last for music director Christopher Dragon, who is stepping down to concentrate on other duties as his career grows. A two-year search for a new director will start next fall.

For Amber, collaborating with the WSO has been an ongoing treat.

“I was pretty excited to be asked to be part of this celebration, because I think it’s pretty remarkable that we have such a robust symphony orchestra in a city our size,” she said. “It’s something we should all be proud of.”

Tickets for the WSO’s Prelude event can be purchased online here; at the WSO’s office, 225 S. David St.; or by calling the office at 307-266-1478.