Librarian leads ‘double life’ as singer at Tudor dinners

Sylvia Edlebeck’s life is the stuff of fairy tales. For most of the year she’s an acquisitions librarian and Web master at the Memorial Library.

However, come November and December, she performs with the Philharmonic Chorus of Madison at the Wisconsin Union’s Tudor Dinners. This role, which Edlebeck began in 1972, strips her of her workday persona and replaces it with a fantasy life as a musician in the court of Henry VIII.

Sylvia Edlebeck, right, an accountant and senior academic librarian at Memorial Library, sings and plays bells with the Philharmonic Chorus of Madison during a concert at Memorial Union, as part of the annual Tudor Holiday Dinner Concert series. Guests at the event enjoy camaraderie, holiday music, yuletide traditions and a lavish feast. Photo: Michael Forster Rothbart

Actually, it’s a rather arduous fantasy life.

“A Tudor dinner evening includes small minstrel groups who entertain guests before the meal begins, and opening ceremonial music including ‘The Boar’s Head Carole,’ sung while a festive likeness of a boar’s head is carried throughout the Great Hall. We also sing carols with the audience during and after dinner,” Edlebeck says.

And that’s not all, not by a long shot.

“The after-dinner concert consists of a half-hour of music of the season, chosen by the Philharmonic’s director, Patrick Gorman,” she says. At this year’s feasts, guests heard works by Tchaikovsky, Britten, Reger and a number of contemporary composers, plus a Latvian carol — sung in Latvian — and an African-American spiritual.

Despite the hard work, usually beginning with weekly rehearsals in September, Edlebeck estimates that she has participated in more than 100 Tudor evenings.

“Each one is a very special occurrence, and I never get bored,” she says. “The enthusiasm of the audience each night is infectious. It inspires us in the chorus to give our all!”

Tudor dinners have a lengthy history, dating from 1933. The Tudor Singers, under the director of Edgar Gordon, were the first group to provide music for the occasion. The Philharmonic Chorus of Madison, a community ensemble numbering around 40, has been the “voice” of the dinners since 1972, the year that Edlebeck joined the Philharmonic. In spring, the chorus also presents a number of concerts. To learn more, visit http://philharmonicchorusof madison.org/index.html.

However, Edlebeck does not restrict her musical interests to Tudor England. In addition to the Philharmonic, she also sings tenor with the Sound of Madison, a women’s four-part a cappella barbershop group, affiliated with Sweet Adelines International.

“In barbershop, tenor is the highest of the four parts. The others, from highest to lowest, are lead, which usually has the melody, baritone and bass,” she says.

Edlebeck’s interest in long-ago times comes as no surprise when she talks about her part-time antiques business.

“I have always been interested in collecting and organizing things. I have been a stamp collector for many years, and this has flowed logically into collecting and selling all sorts of smaller items such as vases, figurines, postcards, books and anything else I find interesting. I now rent space in one of the local antiques malls,” she says.

However, singing and antiques are not Edlebeck’s only extracurricular interests.

“I’m thinking of taking early retirement in the next year or two,” she says. “That would give me more time to devote to my many passions, among them, playing the recorder, kayaking, bird-watching, gardening…” And her list, like the song, plays on.