-Watch the Mahomet-Seymour Madrigal Performance from Dec. 12 at 6 p.m until Christmas here.
-Submit a video to the Mahomet-Seymour Alumni Chorus here.
-Order cookies and an at-home Madrigal caroling experience here.
The 2020 Mahomet-Seymour Madrigal dinner may be different in its 38th year, but it’s still definitely something worth celebrating: especially since it will be free to the public beginning Dec. 12.
Planning for the annual holiday celebration has come with great apprehension, as have most planned gatherings since the pandemic began. For Mahomet-Seymour’s Choral Director Nicole Kuglich communication was key.
“It’s been a constant struggle to know that the choices that you’re making are safe and the right ones as we’ve been faced with choices of how we lead our lives as we’re living in a pandemic,” she said.
The Madrigal celebration has never been an event that comes together overnight. The group begins practicing during the summer months as they gear up to spread holiday cheer at local churches, nursing homes, festivals and the Mahomet Public Library between Thanksgiving and Winter Break.
While Kuglich was diligent about researching how COVID-19 could be spread through aerosols, particularly within the context of singing, she felt the safest way to begin was via Zoom. The group then moved to socially distanced practice outdoors, although that method of rehearsal held its limitations.
It wasn’t until the Mahomet-Seymour School District had a few weeks of hybrid learning under their belts and the Madrigals were able to host a socially-distanced outdoor preview concert for parents at YoYo’s in September that Kuglich decided to approach students and their parents about moving indoors.
“In addition to singing with masks and always being socially distanced, how do we further mitigate the exposure risk for our students?” Kuglich wondered. “I was always proceeding with caution: people are so tired of filling out surveys and forms but I was constantly asking them okay what are you comfortable with?”
As they came inside in their after-school practices, Kuglich made sure that the students were equipped with special masks designed for singers, were socially distanced and that the group moved from space-to-space throughout the school each 30-minutes as to not have them exposed to aerosols for long periods of time.
“My administrators have been very trusting of my choices,” she said. “I think that they trust that I’m doing my research and I’m trying to mitigate as much as we possibly can to make sure that our students and families remain safe throughout the process.”
Part of what Kuglich has tried to do throughout the uncertainty that lingers in the fabric of everyday life is give students something familiar.
“I’ve been made aware of from parents, especially for the remote only students that come in for Madrigals, they just feel disconnected from everything,” she said. “I wanted to foster a way for that connection to happen. I’ve been trying to just devote 10 minutes of the opening of our rehearsal to just conversation and drawing kids out and having them share things.”
Kuglich often asks students to reflect on what has made them happy while also giving them the opportunity to share that they may feel differently that day.
“Giving them a forum and a platform to talk to one another, to relate to one another is really important,” she said.
Even as the Madrigals approach their Dec. 4 and 5 recording dates, Kuglich knows that nothing is set in stone.
She hopes that the 20 students will be able to gather at the high school to record the virtual performance that will be available on the Mahomet-Seymour Choirs Facebook page on Dec. 12 at 6 p.m.
With rising COVID-19 cases both statewide and locally, Kuglich also knows that school could return to remote learning at any moment. Last week she began capturing what she could in audio and video format during rehearsals.
Kuglich has told her students, “focus on what you can do, not what we can’t do.”
With the help of her husband, Dan’s video editing help, the Mahomet-Seymour Madrigals can do a lot more than they can’t.
The plan at the moment remains that the group will come together in the Mahomet-Seymour High School commons to the stage where they traditionally gather for the holiday feast to record the story of the Lords and Ladies.
Mahomet-Seymour Madrigal Brass (Mad Brass) and Madrigal recorders already recorded their contributions last week.
Should something happen in the next few days, whether school returns to remote learning or a couple members of the Madrigal’s ensemble get sick or have to quarantine, Kuglich has designed back ups, like Zoom recordings, to make sure that the Mahomet community witnesses all of the shows laughter and tears.
Without Kuglich’s foresight, though, a few components may have been missing.
Because the community cannot gather for a feast, the Mahomet-Seymour Madrigals are encouraging families to patronize a local restaurant for takeout. Some restaurants are running specials on Dec. 12 for customers to take home to eat while they watch the show.
Mahomet-Seymour alumni have also been invited to submit a Zoom recording of “Silent Night” to end the performance.
“I have always been a fan of looking to the past,” Kuglich said. “I love history. I love the history of our program. I love that I can talk to Janet Watkins (former Mahomet-Seymour choral director). She’s still a resource for us this many years later after her retirement.
“I feel very fortunate that we have that historical element. I thought what better way of creating that sort of communal singing that usually happens at the end of our dinners. That’s the perfect song to have our alumni join us and recreate that sense of community.”
On that same weekend, from 1-3 p.m. on Dec. 12, for a $40 donation to the Mahomet-Seymour Choral Department, community members can have a live performance at their doorstep as six Madrigal singers deliver Amy Lozar’s homemade cookies.
Requests for the limited offer must be made by Dec. 4.
“Traditionally, we share our music with our community in a number of ways,” Kuglich said.
“We use it to share our love of what we do, our pride in who we are and in maintaining that tradition of giving our community, a little taste of what it’s like to be a Madrigal singer each year.
“I thought what better way to do that than to go back to like just neighborhood caroling.”
With reduced fees associated with the costs of decorations, food and stage equipment in 2020, keeping the actual performance free to the Mahomet-Seymour community was paramount, though. Kuglich said that virtual show will be available until Christmas, when it will be taken down.
“Hopefully everything will go very smoothly and people will feel excited and a little bit of the holiday spirit,” she said.
