Madrigal Feaste

30 years of feasting, fun and fa-la-la

Madrigal dinner 2017 was a step back in time, and not just the usual step back in time to 1600s music and vocabulary.

The 16th biennial Elizabethan Madrigal Feaste was a step back to 1987 and each production thereafter as the music department made a special effort to remember its past as it heads toward a changing future. By the time of the next Christmas Madrigal, the music department, now part of the School of Performing Arts, will be housed in the expanding Performing Arts Center.

With the 2017 performances potentially the last in the Peterson Recital Hall in Lincoln Music Hall, a special effort was made to connect with the Madrigal’s past, according to Laura Diddle, professor and director of choral activities at State.

While alumni are always invited to the performances, held the week after Thanksgiving, a special focus was put on this year’s reunion, she said.

The reunion, held in the Woster Celebration Hall of the new alumni center early Saturday evening before that day’s performance in Peterson Recital Hall, drew 120 people from a region stretching from Omaha to Minneapolis, plus 2011 singer Matt Ostlie, who flew in from Las Vegas. “There was a lot of singing along during the Saturday night production,” Diddle said.

Also, alums made a point to have their pictures taken with the current cast members who were dressed in the Renaissance-era costume that they had worn.

Canaan, Grives returns

The contingent of alums also included the production’s only other two directors—Charles Canaan, who originated the SDSU madrigal in 1987 and produced eight of them, and Steve Grives, who followed Canaan and produced five of them. (Diddle, who began assisting Grives in 2003, has produced the 2013, 2015 and 2017 shows.)

Canaan, who always included “In Silent Night” in his production, directed that song while Grives directed “The Moon Shines Bright,” the traditional closing number.

Grives, who now is in Lincoln, Nebraska, said, “My challenge was to keep my emotions in check and to keep the final piece together without any rehearsal prior to the performance. But, as I stood up there and looked out among the people standing in and around the hall, by candlelight, I was reminded how this one event, this moment, has the power to connect people from many different eras and backgrounds at SDSU.”

Like mother, like child

With a span of 30 years between the first and current Madrigal production, the era includes two generations of performers.

This year’s group included three singers whose parents sang in previous productions—Micah Perry, son of Denise Perry, a 1991 performer; Molly Sundvold, daughter of Amber (Heintz) Sundvold, a 1993 performer; and Megan LeMaster, daughter of Jennifer Spencer, a 1995 performer.

Molly Sundvold, an alto in the Concert Choir, said, “I loved singing ‘In Silent Night,’ which was our second-to-last song of the show. The lights in the hall went down as we (the choir) turned on candles that we held, creating a peaceful atmosphere and bringing the focus back to Jesus’ birth.

“While this was my favorite memory from the performance itself, I enjoyed the process of rehearsals and shows because I got much closer with some of my choir friends and even made new ones.”

The choir totals 72, including 18 at the head table, which not only performs many selections in a small-group setting, but also performs as a character from Elizabethan times in skits, plays and throughout the meal, which is served by other choir members.

Micah Perry, who was a tenor at the head table in the 2017 production, said, “My mother loved talking about her time in the Madrigal. As soon as I finalized my decision to pursue music education at South Dakota State, she joyously said, ‘I get to see you in the Madrigal!’ She shared with me the memories she had made with her colleagues in the choir and she shared pictures of my father with a mullet coming to see her in 1991.”

However, one didn’t have to have a relative in the production to be touched by it.

Micah Perry said, “My strongest memory would be singing the final selection with the Concert Choir, ‘The Moon Shines Bright,’ to an alumna in the audience. As I continued to sing, she began to tear up. After the song had concluded, she thanked me for taking her back to her youth. I will never forget the look of joy in her eyes.”

Connecting campus, community
for Christmas

The magic of those four evening performances has consistently been as much a part of the evening as the wassail toast and serving the boar’s head.

Canaan, who directed the Madrigal performances from 1987 through 2001, said, “I think the expressions of the attendees are what I remember most. I remember one woman coming up and saying, ‘My daughter gave me tickets as a Christmas gift and this was the nicest gift I’ve ever had.’ That’s kind of special.

“It became a way for the community to celebrate Christmas with the university outside of a formal concert situation.”

Canaan, now retired and living in Rapid City, initiated the Madrigal at SDSU to create a spectacular event to show off the hard work on the choir members to the community.

“Before starting my second year here (1987), I attended a summer conference. Part of the conference was putting on a madrigal dinner. The madrigal directors from Wayne (Nebraska) State College talked about how they put one together. That got the ball rolling. I had been to one or two before and decided to give it a try. Little did we know then that it’d still be going 30 years later,” Canaan said.

He added, “It’s hard to believe 30 years ago we started with nothing, no costumes nor money to work with. I joked with the choir yesterday (Dec. 1) that we had to beg, borrow and even steal a few costumes from different schools to get started.

“I even asked the previous school where I was (Northwestern College, Orange City, Iowa) for a few costumes because I knew it had done a Shakespeare play and had costumes. We also got some from Brookings High School and the SDSU theater department and had a few made to get the ball rolling.”

Proceeds fund travel, scholarships

Today, the Madrigal performances get a big boost from the theater department, both in terms of cast members and support by providing new costumes for members of the head table. Billy Wilburn, an associate professor who specializes in costume design, and his theater students completed one and worked on another. Community volunteers Kathy Larson and Jean Gentry handled the remaining work.

For years, the Madrigal has been a guaranteed sellout with proceeds used for scholarships and international travel, which in 2020 will take the Concert Choir to Rome.

As for the 2019 performance, whether it remains in this intimate setting of the historic Lincoln Music Hall or moves to the expansive atrium lobby of the Performing Arts Center, the definitive decision has not been made, Diddle said.

“Regardless of where we put it on, it will be a tremendous experience,” she promised.

– Dave Graves