SMCA History
Musica's History and All About Us
In 1971, a group of neighbors in Southern Maryland gathered together to share their love of madrigal music and formed the Madrigal Concert Ensemble. Ten years later, the name was changed to St. Maries Musica and the group grew to 21 members from throughout the region. Today, our 24 singers come from all walks of life: engineers and music teachers, retirees and housewives. Some members have been with us for less than a year, and some have been with the group since the beginning.
Over the years, we have performed at a variety of locations during our Spring and Christmas concert seasons. We regularly perform free public concerts at regional churches, as well as fundraisers for Historic Saint Mary's City, the original capitol of the Maryland Colony. We have even performed in such prestigious venues as the Kennedy Center and the Old Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C.
In 2014, Musica was invited to participate in a concert in Avery Fisher Hall at the Lincoln Center in New York City. The concert featured the music of Eric Whitacre and Stephen Schwartz. Several of the members attended this once-in-a-lifetime event and were musically rewarded for it.
As the name and costume suggest, we began life specializing in madrigals and other historic choral styles. However, we have expanded our music selections to include many genres ranging from classical to contemporary. With the creation of the Festival Chorus in 2012, we can now undertake works that require more singers, such as Durufle's "Requiem" and Bach's "Cantata 80".
Why “St. Maries” instead of “St. Mary’s”?
When St. Maries Musica named itself upon incorporation in 1983, the group spent time considering several names. It had been informally called the “madrigal concert ensemble”, a very generic name used since the group of singing friends first came together in 1971. We wanted something a bit more unique – not just “choir” or “ensemble “and Musica was selected. The group also felt strongly that we should take advantage of the unique history of Southern Maryland as the location of the founding colony of Maryland. So we paid homage to the founders by adding “St. Maries” because it was unique, and because that was how it was spelled originally. Father Andrew White, a Jesuit missionary, came to what became Maryland with the first settlers on the Arc and Dove in 1634. He wrote a history, a contemporaneous chronical, of the voyage that details the entire trip, partially quoted below.
“we came some 9 or 10 leagues
lower in the riuer Patomecke; to a lesser riuer on the north
side of it, as bigge as Thames, which we call St Georges, this
riuer makes 2 excellent bayes, wherein might harbour 300
saile of 1000 tunne a peece with very great safetie, the one
called S' Georges bay, the other, more inward St. Maries, on
the one side of this river lives the king of Yoacomaco, on the
other our plantation is seated, about halfe a mile from the
water, and our towne we call St. Maries.”
This spelling was used in the early days of the colony and can be seen in many official documents. Its use declined and quickly became St. Mary’s as spelling became more standardized. The group felt strongly that the newer spelling was less desirable because it would identify us too closely with St. Mary’s County Government. Many other county agencies and nonprofits use St. Mary’s in their names. We wanted to remain unique, establishing our brand as something different.