Madrigalia's history

A Brief History of Madrigalia

On a summer night in 1975, Opera Under the Stars gave its final performance of the season at the Highland Park Bowl in Rochester, New York. A small group of cast members was eager to continue the wonderful ensemble singing they’d experienced during the performances of Lerner and Lowe’s Camelot, and decided to form a madrigal group. The name Madrigalia was suggested over food, drinks and musical scores, and was enthusiastically approved by the group.

When the 15 original members of Madrigalia began singing together, rehearsals were held every other week in the members’ homes, and the gatherings were both musical and social affairs. One of the members was Robert Dwelley, a doctoral candidate at Eastman School of Music, and the Director of Music at St. Bernard’s Seminary. He agreed to be the music director, and led Madrigalia for the first 13 seasons.

After nine months of rehearsals, Madrigalia’s first public performance was held in the spring of 1976. WXXI’s Simon Pontin was the host and master of ceremonies for the concert, and this was the beginning of a long association between Madrigalia and WXXI Public Radio. Later that year the group performed the first annual Christmas concert in the Interfaith Chapel at the University of Rochester.

By 1980 the group had significantly expanded its performance calendar, appearing several times at the “Downtown Friday Night” concert series. Madrigalia also performed at the annual Rochester Baroque Festival, and the fifth annual Christmas concert was given in Kilbourn Hall at the Eastman School of Music, making Madrigalia the first non-Eastman ensemble invited to use the facility.

During its first few years of existence, Madrigalia was loosely organized, with meetings that included rehearsal time and social time. The members paid weekly dues to finance operations and purchase music, but for the most part, singers were responsible for buying their own music. The early repertoire included madrigals and part songs from the collection “The A Capella Singer.” In addition, Music Director Robert Dwelley wrote and arranged a number of pieces for the group.

In the early 1980s Madrigalia began to expand its borders, appearing in new concert venues at the Memorial Art Gallery and the Hochstein School of Music. Soon the group was giving regular out-of-town performances in Olean, Buffalo, Old Forge and Pen Yan. Then in 1988, Dr. Dwelley stepped down as Madrigalia’s Music Director. Over his 13-year tenure, Madrigalia presented nearly 100 concerts, and went from an informal group of singing friends to a professional-caliber ensemble held in high esteem in the Rochester community and beyond.

The group spent a year working with guest conductors while the search for a new leader took place. In 1989 Roger Wilhelm was selected as Madrigalia’s second Music Director. He quickly took the group in new directions, with local premiers of music by Arvo Pärt and Cary Ratcliff. He also began the tradition of thematic concerts that would soon become a trademark of the group. Over the years, concert goers have been treated to “Songs of our Politics” for Election Day, “The Singing of the Green” for Saint Patrick’s Day, and “A Funny Thing Happened…” just for fun.

Madrigalia release its first compact disc in 1993. While many of the concerts had been recorded for broadcast on WXXI, the group decided it was time to begin distributing their performances to a broader audience. The CD was a collaborative effort with WXXI and the program With Heart at Voice.

Recording sessions were held during the winter months, with the heating and ventilations systems turned off to avoid the noise made by pipes “popping” and fans turning on and off. To keep warm, the singers wore coats and mittens through multiple takes of sacred music by American composers. Anthems Across America was released on October 17, and includes music by Alan Hovhaness, Kirke Mechem, Austin Lovelace and Rochester’s own Cary Ratcliff.

2006 marked the 30th Anniversary of Madrigalia’s debut performance, and the group celebrated with the premiere of a brand new work, The Starry Messenger by Glenn McClure. It uses texts from Dava Sobel’s award winning book Galileo’s Daughter, and describes the life and struggles of the famed astronomer. The premiere was presented in Rochester and in Geneseo on May 20th and 21st.