College life is a time that allows for building bonds, establishing friendships, and sharing new experiences. Maryville College takes that philosophy several steps further by offering its students the opportunity to participate in the Maryville College Concert Choir and its other various vocal ensembles.
“The choir represents Maryville College as a place where students are encouraged to care deeply, work hard, and support each other,” said Stacey Wilner, senior lecturer of music and director of choral activities at Maryville College. “The way the students sing, interact, organize and carry out our events reflects the College’s values in a very real way.”
See “What Dreams May Come” by Maryville College Concert Choir Tuesday, March 24, 7 p.m., at Clayton Center for the Arts.
The ability to expand on those values is also inherent in the choir’s annual tours. This year, students will participate in the 2026 touring program, “What Dreams May Come,” a performance inspired by Eric Whitacre’s “Sleep,” a composition written for a cappella choir that explores a cycle of dreams, challenges, hope, longing, sorrow and renewal in both real and symbolic terms.
The tour will take the choir to various venues throughout Tennessee, giving the students a chance to serve not only as musical ambassadors, but also to express Maryville College’s deeply-rooted values, those of purpose, caring and education, in ways that extend beyond the boundaries of the campus itself.
“High school seniors generally audition in the spring for admittance into the program and for scholarships when available,” Wilner said.
“Whether they are incoming freshmen or upperclassmen, we evaluate their overall vocal ability and assess their likelihood of success in our program. We generally seem to attract students that were leaders in their high school program, making us very fortunate to have very dedicated and talented singers in our ensembles.”
It’s little wonder, then, that those who participate in the choir find such worth and fulfillment. Senior Rebecca Johnson first began participating as a nervous first-year singer, but has now become a tour veteran who says she’s been enriched beyond measure.
Johnson was drawn to singing early on.
“For as long as I can remember, music has been a significant part of my life,” she said. “My family is very musical, and we all love to sing together. I myself have always loved to sing, particularly at church. In high school, I joined the choir and began taking voice lessons… Knowing I would be attending Maryville College and that I wanted to continue singing, I decided to audition for Concert Choir, Off Kilter, and Lassies. I wished to continue having a creative outlet. The Maryville College Concert Choir is very open to students majoring in subjects other than music, which made it a great fit for me and my educational/professional goals.”
Johnson soon discovered that the choir is, in her words, “more than a group of people merely making music in the same space.”
Joshua Cornell, class of ‘26, found a similar experience.
“My interest in choir started when a friend asked me to join and just try it out to see if I liked it,” he said. “I’ll admit I was a little cautious at first, since I had no real singing experience, and I wasn’t very confident in my abilities. However, after the first rehearsal I attended, I was instantly hooked. That experience helped me let my guard down and, for the first time, really enjoy singing.”
Johnson said that the experience has opened other doors for her as well.
“Making music with others has the ability to unify people in a way that not many other things can,” she said. “Whenever I sing with others, I experience this strange, inexplicable feeling that making music is exactly what I was made to do. When we perform for an audience, whether it be high schoolers, elderly individuals, families, or church congregations, we have the opportunity to use our music to inspire, advocate, inform, and even change ourselves internally.”
Cornell said that the choir experience has been meaningful in many ways.
“I feel like choral music allows people to experience a wide variety of emotions and can even invoke vivid memories,” he said. “Being part of that, to help create those experiences for an audience, has been incredibly meaningful. I feel like it’s been a huge opportunity to be able to give people those experiences.”
According to Johnson, there was an extra benefit to being involved.
“Maryville College Concert Choir has given me two of my current roommates, who are also dear friends of mine,” she said. “Additionally, choir allowed me to meet other ASL-English Interpreting majors in the grade above me, whom I may not have gotten to know otherwise!”
Naturally, being on tour and seeing new sights and finding new audiences has decided advantages as well.
“Touring has allowed me not only to make lasting memories with friends but also to serve communities through music,” Cornell said.
“It’s also a chance to form meaningful connections with people from different places, whether across the country or, in some cases, across the state. Those connections can be really impactful. Looking back, most of my closest friendships have come from being in the choir, which really speaks to the nature of the program.”
Johnson agreed. “Touring has allowed me to meet a wide, wide variety of people, which is easily one of my favorite parts of the touring nature of our choir,” she said. “I also had not traveled overseas prior to my freshman year tour to Scotland. Singing in old, old castles and cathedrals was a unique, once-in-a-lifetime experience that I will never forget!”
“People often share how moved they were — not just by the sound of the choir, but by the sincerity, focus, and humanity of our students,” Wilmer said. “In that sense, the choir becomes a living, musical expression of Maryville College and a meaningful bridge between the campus and the wider community.”
“One of my favorite aspects of Mrs. Wilner’s instruction is her utter devotion to the music we sing,” Johnson said. “The amount of energy she invests in the music directly correlates to how invested each member of the choir is as well. She puts so much thought into each piece she chooses, and she is excellent at programming our repertoire. She picks a wide variety of music in order to expose us to many different genres while simultaneously giving the audience a fun, unique choral experience to witness!”
Cornell agreed. “Stacey has really inspired me to dive deeper into the music I’m singing and to explore the meaning behind each piece,” he said. “She’s encouraged me to tell a story through the music and to bring out the appropriate emotion in every performance. Just as importantly, she’s given me the space to grow into a more confident vocalist. When I started, I lacked confidence in my voice, but she never held that against me.”
