WCU Early Music Ensemble Alumni
Reunion Concert
Some 30 vocalists of the choral ensemble which presented the annual Madrigal Christmas Dinners at WCU will join together, in order to present a concert at 6:30 PM in the Recital Hall of the Coulter Building on Saturday, June 22. The concert is free and open to the public.
Under the leadership of Dr. Robert Holquist (retired WCU Director of Choral Activities), the group will be singing favorite madrigals, ceremonial selections, and Christmas choral settings which were favorites of the group members, and the audiences which enjoyed the Madrigal Dinners from 1970--2013. "The main reason we are doing this is to sing together again," said Holquist, "and we hope that our followers will be able to come to hear us revisit a part of our past." Holquist joined the WCU music faculty in 1979, where the Madrigal Dinners had been done since 1970, with the University Center staff and Food Services providing the dinner, service, decorations, and the set. Dramatic assistance was provided by students and faculty from the Theatre Department (now School of Stage and Screen). Dr. and Mrs. James Dooley reigned as "Lord and Lady of the Feaste" from 1979--2009. Their roles were assumed by Boyd and Lynda Sossamon for 2010--2013.
The alumni represent singers from those first years up to the last production, in 2013. "I am thrilled to be meeting with this group of singers again! We worked hard, but always enjoyed making music together. These opportunities are often not available to people, when they leave the university setting. We won't be in costume, one will not see the Wassail Bowl, Boar's Head, nor the Figgy Pudding, but I assure you, our singing will bring back those memories," Holquist quipped.