Madrigals sing through loaded week

By Isabella Ainsworth,
Bluedevilhub.com Staff–

The Davis High Madrigals have been–and will continue to be–busy this month. With a singing schedule that included the Senior Center on Wednesday, the Tree Lighting ceremony on Thursday and the annual Madrigal Dinner on Friday and Saturday, they have barely had time to catch a breath.

“December is definitely the busiest time of the year for us,” senior Sherry Zheng said.

And the activities do not stop with the Madrigals Dinner. Zheng, an alto in the Madrigals, still has seven more performances in the week before finals, but says that this is nothing unusual.

“In December we have a lot of days where we have two or even three performances in one day,” she said.

Zheng has been in the Madrigals for two years. She originally joined as an accompanist, but decided to audition as singer last year after she saw how fun it was to sing the music. She likes being a member of the choir because she gets to “make music with really cool people” and said that since joining the Madrigals she has made a lot of new friends.

After singing at the Senior Center, the Madrigals sang at the Christmas tree lighting downtown. Although tree lighting revelers might have been disappointed this Thursday–it was too cold for the Madrigals to wear their characteristic medieval-style costumes–they did not have much reason to complain, as the sweet, melodious voices of the Madrigals still serenaded everyone enjoying the festivities.

The next two days were the nights of the Madrigal Dinner: the culmination of a lot of work. The dinner is an hours-long Renaissance-era reenactment of sorts in which the Madrigals sing as people enjoy their dinners.

To prepare, the singers had rehearsals every day after school for more than a month, sometimes for up to three hours at a time.

To top it all off, this year the Madrigals were singing new music, which made some members nervous. But in the end, it worked out.

“I think we did a really good job and pulled it off,” Zheng said, adding that she is especially proud of the new members of the group.

Junior Carolina Leshuk helped volunteer at the dinner and thought the whole performance was quite impressive.

“It was really amazing, really well put-together. Everything was really well-decorated,” said Leshuk, who dressed up in a peasant costume and helped serve food to the diners.