Traditional madrigal feast music filled the auditorium at Stanton Middle School on Dec. 8 and 9 for the Kent Roosevelt High School choral department’s 10th annual Madrigal Dinner.
About 170 guests attended each night for a reenactment of a Renaissance feast, with theatrics and singing and, of course, a dinner feast, followed by a dessert course of figgy pudding that was served during the choirs’ rendition of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.”
When the choir wasn’t performing, the harp, brass or flute section was playing background music.
Corey Fowler, Kent Roosevelt’s director of choirs, introduced madrigal dinners to Roosevelt, inspired by his experience performing them as a student at Lakeview High School in Cortland, and then again as a music student at Kent State.
Fowler not only got the idea for a madrigal dinner from his prior schools, he also received the costumes they used for the events after both schools discontinued their madrigal dinners; Kent State donated theirs in 2017, while Lakeview donated this year.
Fowler said “one of the really cool full-circle moments” is that he’s now watching his students perform for the madrigal dinner in costumes he wore when he was a student.
But the costumes are only one of many ingredients that make the madrigal feast a success year after year. Another is the food, provided by Aramark, a detail that Fowler said attracts people that don’t even have children attending the school.
“We always get really good feedback on the food,” Fowler said. “Everyone is always really busy during the holiday. This is a chance to sit down for a night and enjoy these wonderfully talented students right here in Kent, have a good meal, and just add it onto your schedule, and really just have that experience worthy of the season.”
This year’s menu consisted of a choice of tender steak medallions, ranch breaded chicken or quinoa stuffed peppers, along with a garlic breadstick, Yukon gold mashed potatoes, freshly steamed green beans and bread pudding, all served on real china and linens. A spiced wassail beverage and coffee were also served.
The madrigal dinner has been a big hit with the students, and for many of them it’s a highlight of their high school years.
“I get excited because the kids get so excited about it,” Fowler said. “When I first started it here, the students that participated were kinda like, what is this, I don’t understand this. Then once they experienced it and went through it, they really fell in love with it. The seniors, before they graduate, we ask them, ‘What’s your favorite memory from being in choir for four years?’ And most of them say the madrigal dinner.”
Senior Roosevelt student Kore Allen wrote a script for the dinner again this year.
“Last year, I wrote a script for the madrigal dinner,” Allen said prior to this year’s event. “This year, I wrote another script called ‘The Witch,’ which is pretty much about this witch who poisons the food, and they [the student choir] have to figure out who it is.”
The perpetrator of the murder by poisoning, an impostor who was a witch played by Matilda Sabin, confessed to the murder, but was promptly pardoned by the king who declared her the royal witch.
Before the 2023 madrigal dinner took place, Ada Howard, choir president and queen of the madrigal dinner, said the feast is an emotional moment that signifies the final year of high school for senior choir students.
“It’s a really cool tradition that means a lot to the community and also means a lot to the choirs,” Howard said. “There’s a lot of crying at the end on the last song. It’s very bittersweet. The end, it just feels like, it’s just like a big grand finale, kind of for the seniors, for our choir years of high school.
“I have the very last line of the show, which is very, that’s probably the most emotional, and I will probably be crying.”
At the end of the evening, the choir gripped candles as they sang the last song, “Silent Night,” in English, as well as in German, with the guests joining in during the English version.
There were tears.
“That’s how the night ends,” Fowler said. “Everyone is surrounded by the students holding candles. That’s a really special moment.”
