Directors of the elite choral ensemble from years past, revel and reminisce on their transformative experience. 

The Madrigals, a core staple of talented singers on the St. Stephen’s campus have moved audiences for generations, performing in chapel services, at the Festival of Lessons and Carols and many other special events on and off campus.

“There's a pride that comes with being a Madrigal singer,” said Kendra Lipman, St. Stephen’s Director of Choral Music. “It can take years sometimes to be selected.”

That pride and legacy runs deep on The Hill. This winter, during the school’s 75th anniversary celebration, St. Stephen’s is honored to celebrate the select ensemble’s 52-year history at the 2025 Festival of Lessons and Carols on Dec. 13 and 14. The celebration is also a chance to look back at the program’s beginnings and its path to growth and continued strength through the years.

The Madrigals Origin Story

The audition-based singing ensemble was the vision of longtime Fine Arts Department Chair Velberta “Bert” Towner, who served on the St. Stephen’s faculty from 1958 to 1984. Committed to creating a program where students could explore and excel in the arts, Towner founded the Madrigals in 1973, with Terry Heller serving as the group’s first director.

By definition, a madrigal is a vocal music genre, popular during Europe’s Renaissance and early Baroque periods, that features a poem set to music for multiple voices. Originating in 14th-century Italy, traditional madrigals are performed a cappella with two to eight voice parts on a given madrigal. By the seventeenth century, madrigalian composition included instrumental accompaniment.

“There was a desire for an agile group that could learn madrigals, and for a long time they did mostly madrigal type literature,” said Liz Moon, Chair of the St. Stephen’s Fine Arts Department.

Landing a spot in the elite ensemble takes a lot of talent and hard work, starting with the rigorous tryout process available to all incoming Upper School students. Students must possess a high level of music literacy, vocal development and maturity. Lipman says the standards of the advanced repertoire are high, and lean towards the college level. The 15-minute audition tests their vocal range, ear training, sight reading and includes an a cappella solo of “Amazing Grace.” Today's Madrigal ensembles cross the timeline past Renaissance/Baroque and include genres like classical, contemporary, and even pop/rock pieces. 

Shearon Horton, who assumed Heller’s duties in the fall of 1974 after finishing her master’s in piano at The University of Texas at Austin, conducted the group over the next nine years and says the students under her leadership took their singing roles seriously.

“They were proud of being in the Madrigals, they held high standards for themselves, they were strong academically and just really great kids,” said Horton.

During Horton’s tenure, the Madrigals were 12 members strong — three sopranos, three altos, three tenors and three bases. Like today, Horton said the groups she led were diverse and included day and boarding students with a strong community presence.

One of her fondest memories and most ambitious endeavors was organizing a community-wide Renaissance Festival, which included a banquet and Madrigals concert during “sit-down dinner.” Horton recalled the students making banners and items that resembled the Renaissance era, and the Madrigals dressed in Renaissance attire.

The Madrigals Travel From The Hill to the World

Warren Dickson began leading the Madrigals in 1984. In addition to campus performances, he focused on traveling to cities and towns with the group to sing at church services, schools and even homes of prospective boarding families. Stewart Wilkinson later took the Madrigal reins in 1999.

“I consider myself fortunate to have inherited a strong choral program when I arrived,” said Wilkinson.

He left a successful program in Canada — his home country — to take the job in Austin, and was excited to continue hosting workshops and inviting prominent choral educators from across North America to his new campus. His objective was to grow students’ skills and learn from a wide range of vocal experts.

“It never seemed like work to me, but rather a shared effort with talented singers to create something meaningful, not only to ourselves, but also to our audiences,” said Wilkinson.

Wilkinson led the Spartans to remarkable and high-profile stages, performing in renowned venues around the world, including Carnegie Hall in New York City, in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Banff in Alberta, Canada, Taiwan, Germany, the Netherlands, Hungary, Austria, the Czech Republic and China. 

“These trips served to broaden the singers’ appreciation of different cultures, and often to hear other exceptional ensembles,” said Wilkinson. “The bonding that occurred on these trips left the singers with lifetime relationships that went beyond those forged in rehearsals.”

Wilkinson says he still enjoys listening to old Madrigals recordings and thinking about the 12 “wonderful years” he spent with students on The Hill.

Modern Era Madrigals 

When Wilkinson retired in 2011, Rick Gabrillo stepped in and added a contemporary flair to the group. St. Stephen’s current director of choral music, Kendra Lipman, credits Gabrillo with launching Modern Voices, the wildly popular spring pop show. Students in the Middle and Upper School choirs and the Madrigals are required to audition for a coveted spot, performing cover songs backed by a live band. 

When Lipman arrived at St. Stephen’s in the fall of 2013, she was eager to continue the Modern Voices tradition, having directed similar spring pop shows with previous choirs, including at Westwood High School in the Round Rock Independent School District. Lipman had also grown a middle school choir from 50 to 200 students and was excited about the opportunity to lead a program that seamlessly develops vocal literacy and abilities from 6th to 12th grade.

Today’s Madrigal ensembles cross the Renaissance–Baroque timeline while embracing classical, contemporary and even pop/rock pieces. In her 12th academic year at St. Stephen’s, Lipman strives to continue maintaining a balance between honoring the Madrigals’ roots in supporting the Episcopal traditions through chapel services, while also embracing a diverse repertoire of local, national and international performances — sharing their music from The Hill to the world. Under Lipman’s direction, the group has performed in Ireland and London, sung in the chapel in Austria where Mozart was born and performed at a presidential inauguration. They’ve also collaborated with the Admission team to take their talent on the road, visiting rural towns in Texas, showcasing the program’s intentional diversity and the St. Stephen’s experience in the arts program.

While the current 18-member group of day and boarding students share the gift of singing and a passion for music, their interests, hobbies and backgrounds are extremely diverse. During a fall practice in the Recital Hall, one student-athlete was still wearing her volleyball knee pads, and another was hitting the high notes in her field hockey practice jersey.

“We’ve got a volleyball player and a theater student, and a swimmer, and then we have a Model UN member —  they're from all over, and that's what I love,” said Lipman. “When we talk about diversity on our campus, one of the most diverse programs we have is the choir.”

Right now, the Madrigals schedule is full. They are dedicating long hours in preparation for the 75th anniversary celebration of the Festival of Lessons and Carols in mid-December, performing Christmas carols and bringing holiday cheer to senior living centers and hospital patients. Simultaneously, they are warming up their voices to perform at the prestigious Carnegie Hall in New York over spring break.

Former directors are thrilled to hear the Madrigals are stronger than ever and they are excited to join an upcoming Madrigal Lessons and Carols reception on Dec. 14 celebrating the group’s 52 years of excellence. The Sunday service will also feature a special finale performed by faculty, staff and alumni to mark this major milestone.

“I just applaud the longevity of the group and the fact that it's still something that's treasured among all the many activities that go on at St. Stephen's,” said Horton.

Lipman smiles when she thinks about the past, present and future possibilities for the Madrigals  — and the entire choral program at St. Stephen’s.

“I think of 52 years of students and the community benefiting from the arts and music,” said Lipman. “Music is so special — we are able to take text and bring it to a new level. When you add music to it, it takes the moment to a different emotional level, whether it be emphasizing the joy of something or being sensitive to the sadness of something. Tapping into emotion is something that the Madrigals never forget when they leave here.”

We invite all members of the St. Stephen’s community — past and present — to join us for the 2025 Festival of Lessons and Carols. Click here for event information.

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