A legacy in every note: Homecoming Choir concert a part of Stacey Wilner’s final season at Maryville College
Key Takeaways
- Stacey Wilner reflects on her final season directing the Maryville College Concert Choir, expressing both nostalgia and sadness.
- Wilner, who has led the choir for 27 years, emphasizes her commitment to nurturing student talent and maintaining choral traditions.
- The Homecoming Choir on Oct. 23 will feature alumni and current students, showcasing favorite pieces dear to Wilner.
- Alumni credit Wilner with shaping their musical journeys and personal growth, highlighting her impact as a mentor.
- Wilner aims to pass on her legacy and values to the next generation of choral directors, ensuring the spirit of community endures.
Oct. 14, 2026
She only gets a few minutes into a discussion of this year’s Homecoming Choir performance before tears well up in the eyes of Stacey Wilner, coordinator of choral activities at Maryville College.
Undoubtedly, there will be many of them this academic year as Wilner – director of the Maryville College Concert Choir and the smaller ensemble Off Kilter, as well as a senior lecturer in music – takes a bow at each of the upcoming College choral concerts, which will be her last as an MC faculty member. She’ll retire at the end of the 2026-27 academic year, following one more choir tour of Scotland, and given her 27-year tenure as the steward of Maryville College’s rich choral heritage, each performance will be tinged with no small measure of sadness, she says.
“I have to not think about it too much, or I’ll cry every time!” Wilner says, dabbing at her eyes with a tissue. “I’ve been doing a phased retirement because I thought it’s probably time for me to think about it. I’m getting older, and it’s getting harder to do some of these things, and I want the students to have the best experience they can possibly have.
“And I think it’s probably time for me to do some other things. I’ve been in school since 1965 – I’ve never not been in school, either as a student or teaching! I don’t know what it’s like to have a fall where you go on vacation, where you have time to spend with grandkids or time to spend with relatives I feel like I’ve neglected a little bit because of all of my responsibilities here.
“I want to bring back some balance in my life, but this has been such a special part of it, it’s hard to let go,” she adds softly.
But, she’s quick to add, she’ll be 67 by the time the choir returns from Scotland next May. And Wilner is nothing if not a realist – including about how much energy she has and where her abilities are at this point in her life. A new choral director “with more energy, who can take them new places,” is necessary, she adds … and her willingness to give up the programs into which she’s poured so much of her heart and soul is a testament to just how much she values the quality of the music the students make.
Her final season, she adds – including a special performance by the Homecoming Choir on Friday, Oct. 23, in the Ronald and Lynda Nutt Theatre of the Clayton Center for the Arts, immediately following the College’s Homecoming Founder’s Day Showcase – is a nod to those values … or rather, to the insistence that the young voices she molds and shapes never deliver anything but the best of which they’re capable.
“All I’ve tried to do (with this season) is stay in the framework of what we normally do,” she says. “I’m just a part of the legacy, part of the team of directors who have been through here and done this job. I didn’t want to make anything special about me. Now, I did pick out some of my favorite pieces, and I let the students contribute to that, and for the Homecoming Choir performance, some of the alumni have put in requests for their favorite pieces of music.”
But it’s a very strange feeling, she says, knowing that every show … from this month’s Small Ensembles Concert to December’s collaborative holiday concert with the MC Community Chorus and – new for 2026 – a guest Celtic band, Rich Mountain Celtic; and from the spring choir mini-tour to the singing of the Alma Mater at next May’s Commencement ceremony … will be the last time she lifts her hands and steers the assembled singers before her through the notes she, and they, know by heart.
A tradition of bringing people together
One of the reasons her retirement is so emotional is the recognition of her place in a lineage of dedicated musicians, singers and directors who have nurtured such a rich choral tradition at Maryville College over the years. Sacred songs and choral music have been a part of the College’s heritage for more than a century, and they weren’t limited to the boundaries of campus.
In 1932, when Frances Henry – one of the College’s music instructors who taught on a non-credit basis before the formation of the College’s Division of Fine Arts – put together an “Oratorical Society” of almost 100 singers from the town and the college to perform Handel’s “Messiah” for the first time, she likely had no idea it would become a tradition that continues to the present day.
During the height of its popularity in the 1940s, after choir, band and orchestra teacher Ralph Colbert organized the first 30-piece orchestra to accompany the “Messiah” chorus in 1936, radio station WROL-AM in Knoxville recorded the performance and aired an hour-long program of excerpts for its listeners. Although fire destroyed Voorhees Chapel in 1947, “Messiah” at Maryville College did not pause.
For the next seven years, all of the College’s plays and concerts, including “Messiah,” took place in the old Alumni Gymnasium. It was also in 1947 that Dr. Harry Harter began his 35-year career as choir director and vocal instructor at the College, and after retirement, he made himself available as an advisor and mentor to his successors. One of those, Wilner says, was Bob Ergenbright, who served as director of choral and vocal arts and taught music at the College from 1983-1989; as an accomplished bass-baritone, he frequently returned to perform in “Messiah,” but throughout the decade, his leadership, along with that of other College administrators, was beset by the economic woes of the institution.
By 1990, those struggles had decimated the community ensembles that made “Messiah” possible, but the arrival of Dr. Daniel Taddie, who took over as professor of music and chair of the Division of Fine Arts in 1990, returned stability to the choral program and allowed the MC Concert Choir to rebuild. Today, Taddie resides in Alcoa and continues to frequent choral events at the College; Wilner feels a deep respect for the work he put into the program prior to her arrival at MC, as well as to Harter, who reached out to her when she was a newly hired member of the MC faculty.
“He wanted to meet, so we went to lunch, and we got to where we’d go to lunch fairly regularly, and he would tell me stories about some of the traditions of the choir,” Wilner says. “He was big on the esprit de corps of the ensemble, and when I commented on the importance of it, he almost started crying and said, ‘Not everybody gets that! They can do music, but not everybody can bring people together.’”
Wilner, on the other hand, understood the assignment. She’s maintained many of the traditions (although in the case of the choir induction ceremony, steered the event from what was once a much more stern ritual to a spiritual candlelight program) and never forgotten that participation in the choir should provide so much more than an outlet for a great voice; it should serve as another piece of a participating Scot’s education.
“We talked about the importance of tours, the skills students develop during performance travel, and the musical and personal growth from when they start vs. when they finish their tenure in the choir,” Wilner says. “When they graduate, the goal is for them to fly and be free to develop their own programs.”
She drew upon lessons imparted by her high school choir director, Peggy Jo Pridemore, who always swept up the underdogs and the outsiders in an inclusive embrace.
“It’s amazing what a difference that belief in the person can make, and I always tried to follow her vision of believing in the capabilities of students and helping them learn to believe in themselves and find their passion and what they want to do with their lives,” Wilner adds.
And then there’s Rodney Eichenberger, a music researcher and choral director who taught at the University of Southern California and Florida State. Wilner attended a workshop led by Eichenberger in the 1980s, she says, and his methods inspired her to completely change the way she approached choral music.
“I grew up going to old-school rehearsals that were very demanding and harsh and tough, where the directors were like old football coaches,” she says. “Rodney’s philosophy was, ‘Why are we making it so hard? We can have fun with this!’ He talked about all the different ways he set out to m rehearsal a positive experience, inspiring them and using humor and other ways of motivating them. I learned from him that it’s much more effective than being harsh.”
As a result, MC Concert Choir rehearsals incorporate traditions like “Dance Fridays,” during which Wilner lights up a disco ball and joins her young charges in dancing the week’s stresses away. Eichenberger taught her not to take herself too seriously, and she’s been adamant about passing that along to those who count themselves fortunate to have received her tutelage.
That effort, as well as her reverence for the traditions that predate her tenure, has earned her respect from the alumni whose voices served as the standard upon which those traditions were built. Art Hafner ’72 and his wife, Gail Bradley Hafner ’60, are fixtures in the annual Homecoming Choir (along with various other alumni traditions, such as the annual KT Days work week), and Wilner’s efforts, they say, “returned the Maryville College Concert Choir to excellence.”
“Her leadership and directorial style make everyone under her baton want to express the joy of music to the audience,” the couple says. “During her tenure, she also expanded choral opportunities by adding the small group ensembles: Off Kilter, Lads, and Lassies. Her years directing the (Maryville) College-Community Chorus were exceptional: The chosen repertoire was meaningful, challenging, and fun; rehearsals were always educational and enjoyable; she was able to mold quite a diverse group of singers into a cohesive choir that consistently got accolades from the audience after concerts.
“Gail worked with Stacey on several Homecoming Choirs, and that was always a wonderful experience. She leaves a legacy of excellence and an outstanding choral program for the next director.”
The voices she helped find
And on Homecoming Weekend, many of those older alums will return to College Hill to take part in the annual Homecoming Choir, which combines current students with choir alumni for a performance of old favorites and familiar standards. Normally one alum serves as conductor; this year, because it’s her last, Wilner has opted to lead the ensemble herself … and her participation, in addition to her impending exit, is bringing a great many singing Scots back home.
“Being in the choir and Off Kilter under Stacey’s direction created some of the best memories I have from my college career,” says Sharon Lankford Sullivan ’10. She and her husband, Winston Sullivan ’11, are choir veterans who are taking part in the Homecoming Choir for the first time in 2026. “We felt like a family in the choir, and we created such beautiful music together while also having so much fun. The culture that Stacey created was wonderful, and I don’t think I fully appreciated that at the time.
“I went on to get my Master of Music degree, but I work in the corporate world, and now the way I find joy through music is with the Appalachian Equality Chorus. I’ve realized through that experience and hindsight how much love and work she put into every performance and every tour. We were a cohesive unit because of her work and dedication to making harmonious music.”
The Sullivans, who sang together in the MC Concert Choir and have been married for 13 years, are two of numerous alumni who credit Wilner not only with their love of singing and music more broadly, but with self-discovery. Dr. Joe Fitzgerald ’05, an assistant professor of education and adult learning in Belmont University’s College of Education, says that Wilner’s influence helped him unlock gifts and abilities he didn’t realize he possessed when he first came to her as a 19-year-old undergraduate, rich in talent but possessing little formal training.
“I had an impeccable ear and could learn music quickly by listening, but I had virtually no music-reading ability,” Fitzgerald says. “Much of what I knew about singing and musicianship was intuitive rather than technical. Mrs. Wilner recognized that potential immediately. Rather than seeing my limitations, she saw what was possible. Through her conducting and vocal instruction, she helped establish the musical foundation that I had been missing.
“She took the raw material of a student who could hear music well but lacked many of the formal tools and gradually developed both my musicianship and my confidence. She taught me not only how to sing, but how to understand music more deeply and approach it with discipline and intention.”
Fitzgerald, Wilner remembers with a smile, was part of a “crew” of fellow singers that included Dr. Dwight Dockery ’05, who now directs the Maryville College Community Chorus, and Dr. Jenny Olander Anderson ’05, who directs the small tenor-bass ensemble the Lads and serves as the piano accompanist for the alto-soprano group the Lassies. Their talent, Wilner says, was only rivaled by their penchant for mischief, she says with a laugh.
“I knew at the time that mischievous types usually go on to do well, and they all have,” Wilner says. “And now I get to work with some of them! It’s really neat to watch them leading things, and I still smile when I hear Jenny get a little frustrated with one of the Lads, because I remember somebody who used to do similar things!”
Fitzgerald remembers some of that mischief well … and the fact that Wilner never scolded or upbraided, and that inspired him to do better. To grow up, in a way, he adds.
“She had a way of holding students accountable while still believing in their potential,” he says. “She saw beyond the young man I was and invested in the man I could become. Now, almost 25 years later, through my continued involvement with the Homecoming Choir, I have the privilege of seeing that relationship from a very different perspective.”
These days, Fitzgerald adds, the overwhelming emotion he feels for Wilner is gratitude, something echoed among other alumni who once looked up to Wilner and now consider her a peer … even if it’s difficult to maintain first-name formalities in the workplace. For Dockery and Anderson, the opportunity to return to MC and serve alongside Wilner is an honor, they say … and their styles of leadership are directly influenced by the role she played during their undergraduate careers.
“Stacey played a large role in shaping me, not only as a musician, but also as a person,” Anderson says. “She has a way of offering thoughtful guidance and wisdom like no one else. I was fortunate enough to return to Maryville College twice and work with her as a colleague. Both of those times, Stacey has been both a mentor and a friend to me.”
“Over the years, our relationship has evolved from mentor-protégé to friends and colleagues, though part of me will always see her as that important early cheerleader and teacher,” adds Dockery, who met his wife, Shelley Maddox ’05, when the two were students in the choir. Today, Maddox serves as artistic associate for the concert choir, lending her voice to the sonorous blend of student singers, assists with Homecoming Choir and is an indispensable part of navigating the ensemble’s annual choir tours.
“To say she is important in my life is wildly underselling it, and I am so thankful that our paths have crossed and re-crossed,” Dockery continues. “Beyond the discipline of music, she has always been ready and willing to offer advice on life as well. The impact that opportunities and guidance like that have on a young person is immeasurable.”
Lessons that linger beyond the last note
That impact, according to some alumni not long removed for their MC experiences, has been as dependable as the quality of the music made by Maryville College singers throughout Wilner’s tenure. More recent graduates – including Colin Hood ’25 and Josh Cornell ’26, both of whom will take their places in the Homecoming Choir during the weekend celebration – credit some of their post-graduate success to the life lessons Wilner imparted on top of her music mentorship.
“The main thing I took away from my time with the choir is how little things in our everyday life can be so powerful,” Hood says. “I recently finished an internship at Walt Disney World (and I’m heading back down for another one here soon), and much like how music can brighten someone’s day, something as little as a smile or a ‘hello’ can completely change someone’s outlook on the day.
“Our music touched people’s lives, whether it was the song itself, a certain line or word, or a harmony, and that can continue with something as simple as asking how someone’s day is going.”
In a sense, he adds, his ability to conjure “everyday magic for everyone I come across” is a direct result of Wilner’s involvement in the lives of her pupils as much as it is her abilities as an educator. Having graduated in May, Cornell will join the Homecoming Choir as an alumnus for the first time, something he marvels over given that he was initially unsure whether his voice qualified for a place in the choir at all.
“I joined midway through the spring semester of my sophomore year, and at first was nervous and unsure if I had made the right decision,” he says. “As time went on and I had the chance to let my guard down, I had the chance to fully immerse myself in the choir. For me, this was a big change.
“I grew up always nervous and rather unconfident in my singing ability, and early on made the decision that any type of choir would not be for me … but I was wrong. The relationships and connections I made in the Concert Choir encouraged my personal and choral growth; I finally felt like I was able to be my true self in the choir, and I will forever be grateful for those experiences.”
And then there are the current Scots who will wrap up their Maryville College stories around the same time that Wilner takes her final bow. Music Education major Ella Morse ’27 and her twin sister Maddux Morse ’27, a Sociology and Finance/Accounting double major, are members of the MC Concert Choir and Off Kilter; Ella – who, along with Maddux, is in the Lassies as well – plans to pursue a career similar to that of Wilner. She cracked the door to the Maryville College choral music experience for her sister, and it’s no small honor, she says, that the pair are among Wilner’s last class of seniors.
“I have learned from Mrs. Wilner in three ensembles all four years, and her direction and support has shaped my College experience, and me as a musician,” Ella says. “Although she taught me many rehearsal techniques, and I have learned things to apply to my career, I mostly admire the way she understands the importance of connecting people and sharing music.”
Maddux joined the choral program at the urging of her sister; because Wilner was excited to put the combined voices of two twins to use in the Concert Choir, she wasn’t required to audition, she says … but her first rehearsal was nerve-racking nonetheless.
“I felt overwhelmed and intimidated (because) the rehearsal pace and the expectations were so different from high school,” Maddux says. “(But) I’ve learned more than just music in the last four years. I’ve learned how to be a good friend and leader, and I’ve learned the power that music can have on people, whether you are the musician or in the audience.”
She considers herself fortunate, Maddux adds, to add her voice to some of Wilner’s favorite selections chosen for this year’s various choir programs, as well as to be able to travel to Scotland for the ensemble’s May tour. As a senior, this year will mark a number of finales and farewells for the Morse sisters as well, but if there’s one thing they’ve learned from Wilner and their predecessors, it’s that “orange, garnet float forever,” to paraphrase the MC Alma Mater.
“I feel lucky to have been able to learn from Mrs. Wilner for my entire College choir experience, and it also feels really special to know that we will be the last choir she directs before retiring,” Maddux says. “Her impact on the choir program will extend after her retirement, but I think it’s really important that MC hire a new choir director who will also dedicate so much to the students and the music.
“I am mostly excited to graduate in May, but my last year at MC is especially sentimental because it is my last year in this choir. The choir is the part of my MC experience that I will miss the most, and it is the hardest thing to say goodbye to. And because I know the choir program next year will be different without Mrs. Wilner, this year is sort of the end of an era.”
A chorus of gratitude comes home
As Wilner recalls these students and others who have passed through her classrooms and choir rooms over the years, the tears are replaced by a smile. Some of the names that come to mind are those of Scots whose involvement with music ended after graduation, or who indulge in singing today as a hobby. Others, she adds, are those who used the choir and the vocal performance they learned at Maryville College as a springboard to a full-time career: Retired Tech Sgt. Paige Wroble ’01, who spent nearly two decades as the featured vocalist in the U.S. Air Force band The Airmen of Note; Jesse Neace ’03, a bass-baritone whose tenure with opera companies in East Tennessee became a springboard to a heralded spot in the U.S. Army Chorus, which sang the National Anthem at several Major League Baseball World Series games; Jeff Jopling ’03, a local musician who fronts his own band, serves on the Blount County Commission and is the touring guitarist for Grand Ole Opry star Chris Janson; Laura Atkinson Steigerwalt ’05, a mezzo-soprano opera star who found success on stages in the United States and Europe; and many, many more.
And because it’s her final year, many of them will come home to Howee and pay tribute to her through participation in the Homecoming Choir. In previous years, the choir was given a spot during the Founder’s Day Showcase to offer musical entertainment; this year, in recognition of Wilner’s many years of service, the showcase will lead into a full Homecoming Choir performance at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23, in the Nutt Theatre, which will include many of the standards made famous by MC singers over the years.
“I wanted to (conduct) it myself this year, and I just selected music I knew (the singers) would love. And some of the alumni helped me pick what we’ll do,” Wilner says. “This year, I’ll get to see several students I haven’t seen since they graduated. A few have messaged me and said they’re wanting to come, and that’s so very meaningful to me to get to see them again.
“I hope I recognize everybody! And because we’re all mixed with other alumni who were directed by Harry (Harter), it’s just an interesting experience because it’s the legacy of so many different directors who all share a love of the Concert Choir and the Music program.”
Songs on the Homecoming Choir program include “I Hear the Harps Eternal,” which “anyone who’s ever sung in a choir for any length of time knows that piece,” Wilner says … “Ride on King Jesus,” by Moses Hogan, who once gave a free workshop to MC Concert Choir students on a New Orleans tour stop and then refused Wilner’s offer of payment, instead encouraging her to pay it forward … Joseph Flummerfelt’s arrangement of the folk standard “Danny Boy” (Flummerfelt, a fixture at Westminster Choir College, was an enormous influence on Harter, Wilner adds, giving the song’s inclusion a lovely full-circle moment) … “Sing Me to Heaven,” a piece every student Wilner taught has sung at one time or another … “Locus Iste,” a sacred and celebrated choral work composed by Anton Bruckner … and then, of course, the Maryville College Alma Mater.
Granted, there will be plenty of other performances of that particular piece before Wilner turns over the choral reins for good. But just as talk of her final year moves her to tears, it’s entirely possible that each performance of the Alma Mater, with its regal call-out to where “Chilhowee’s lofty mountains pierce the Southern blue,” will bring them to her eyes again.
Because she isn’t just giving up a job. She’s stepping away from a role that is intertwined with her identity. Caretaker. Surrogate mother. Life coach. Over the years, she’s been all of those things and more, and during Homecoming Weekend, the choir faithful will return to remind her of just how much that role has made a difference.
“As I reflect during my first semester as a grad student, I often look back to the lessons on perseverance and dedication I learned from Stacey,” Cornell says. “She has truly left a remarkable impact on the lives of her students and has truly left a mark on the fine arts at Maryville College, and I know we all wish her the best in her upcoming retirement. “
“What began as a teacher-student relationship has deepened into one of profound respect and gratitude,” Fitzgerald adds. “As a man in his 40s, I now appreciate not only what Stacey taught me musically, but what she modeled as an educator, mentor and leader. The lessons I value most were never just about music; they were about growth, excellence and becoming the fullest version of oneself. For that, I will always be grateful.”
What comes afterward is still to be determined. In some ways, it’ll be difficult to let go, given how much she’s put into the program. But at the same time, she understands just how important it is for fresh ideas and younger faces to begin a new chapter of the Maryville College choral tradition … as long as some of those traditions remain in place, especially the esprit de corps that was so sacred to Harter and to herself.
“That’s what I want to carry on, because that’s so important,” she says. “Times change, and there are different types of students now than when I started. But I still try to listen to how they interpret the world and meet them where they are, and I hope that whoever follows me does that and helps them grow and be inclusive in any way they can be … and make some good music while they’re at it.”
For those alumni, choir supporters, colleagues of Wilner and members of the public unable to attend next weekend’s Homecoming Choir performance, mark your calendars: A retirement celebration for Wilner is scheduled for 5 to 7 p.m. Saturday, April 24, 2027, on the plaza of the Clayton Center for the Arts. (Backup location in case of inclement weather will be the Harold and Jean Lambert Recital Hall of the Clayton Center.) Food will be set up in the center’s Blackberry Farm Gallery, and the theme of the celebration, according to Division of Fine Arts staff members, is a “Jimmy Buffett Sail Away Retirement Party” for Wilner.
Stacey Wilner through the years …
