Meet Maggie Condon, Executive Producer of Wisconsin Singers
Maggie Condon’s connection to the Wisconsin Singers started long before her role as executive producer of the Broadway-style student dance and song ensemble. Growing up just 40 minutes south of Madison, she attended her first Wisconsin Singers performance while in middle school and continued to follow them beyond high school.
In December of last year, the executive producer role opened up. Maggie, a then-high school choir teacher of 14 years, decided to apply.
“It was kind of a dream job being able to come back to the Madison area, working for UW and the Wisconsin Union and getting to do what I love, which is work with students,” Maggie said.
The Wisconsin Singers, known for their high-caliber instrumentals, choreography and production design, premiered its 58th season earlier this month. The ensemble includes singer-dancers, band members, theater technicians and a team of interns, all of whom are full-time UW-Madison students.
Maggie serves as executive producer within the ensemble’s professional staff. For her, this job was not only a creative endeavor, but an opportunity to continue to support music education throughout Wisconsin and combine her passions for choral music, musical theater and production.
She started her role as executive producer in February, marking just nine months with the ensemble. Having entered her role halfway through the season, she did not work on building out the shows. This season, she is excited to be stepping into the creativity that comes with developing and producing an entire season’s worth of performances.
“We get to be really creative, and we’re not necessarily bound to a script like you are with a musical or bound to a time limit with a competitive show choir,” Maggie said. “It combines the best of all my worlds.”
The ensemble has been working on this season’s shows since August, including a 16-day camp where the students learned the choreography and songs. The ensemble’s performances include a variety of venues from the Madison Night Market to Memorial Union’s Shannon Hall. No matter the location or event, at the heart of each performance for Maggie and the Wisconsin Singers is a desire to share what they’ve been working on with an audience.
“We perform in amazing theaters like Shannon Hall here at the Memorial Union with all the bells and whistles, but we also perform in school gyms and outdoor stages that don’t have any lighting,” Maggie said. “We take it where we can, because we love sharing what we are doing with an audience.”
The Wisconsin Singers started in the 1960s as the “Official Ambassadors of Goodwill” for the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The ensemble was formed in an effort to bring people together over music and to enjoy something collectively. Maggie believes that the group still has a connective impact nearly six decades later.
“The whole idea behind Wisconsin Singers was started in that music was something that could bring people together,” Maggie said. “Our message is still very relevant to this day. I think that is a really amazing thing that is very unique to the Wisconsin Singers and what we do.”
There are numerous ways to support the Wisconsin Singers, including purchasing the ensemble’s merchandise or donating to the “Friends of Wisconsin Singers,” who help make each season happen. To Maggie, one of the best ways to support is coming to one of their shows.
“Coming to a show is the best way to support us. We love having an energetic audience,” Maggie said. “We want to see the crowd enjoying what we are doing for them.”
If you would like to donate to the ensemble, donations can be sent to “Friends of Wisconsin Singers” or through the UW Foundation under Wisconsin Singers. You can learn more about the ensemble and Maggie’s first season as executive producer here.
