Sound of the Rockies

with the Denver Mountainaires.

In the 1990s, there were two major chapters in the Denver area, the older Mile High Chorus and the Denver Tech chapter, chartered in the 1980s. In 1999, the two chapters began to discuss the idea of merging, which is very rarely successful for large choruses. It was put to a vote by the members of each chapter, and a merger was approved on January 1, 2000. The chorus drafted a young, untried director for their initial leadership in Darin Drown, who had recently moved to Denver from Nebraska.

The chorus put on a successful charter show in the spring of 2000 that consisted of Broadway tunes, and competed in their first Rocky Mountain District contest in the fall of 2000 in Rapid City, South Dakota, placing second and missing a wild card invitation to International by a mere 5 points.

, the chorus maintained top 5 standing, placing 4th in what is commonly held to be the most competitive barbershop chorus contest in history.