Send-off concert
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Before a Conference Center audience in Salt Lake City, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square staged a dress rehearsal Feb. 1 for its trip to California, where it will perform at the prestigious American Choral Directors Association convention in Los Angeles.
Musical director Craig Jessop told the audience the convention is so large the choir must perform its 45-minute program for three separate audiences on the same evening — two of them in the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the other in the new Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral. He jokingly likened it to putting on a ward "road show."
The choir was scheduled to appear in San Diego's Cox Arena on Feb. 4 and then give its three concerts for the convention in Los Angeles the following evening.
Choral groups from the nation and abroad must audition to sing at the convention, Brother Jessop said, except for some on a certain level, such as the Tabernacle Choir, which perform by invitation. In the choir's case, the invitation came unsolicited, he said.
"Normally, choirs are allowed a 20-minute slot to perform, with no exceptions," he explained. "We're an exception. We have been given a 45-minute time slot" just for the performance, with an additional 15-minute allowance for moving the nearly 400 singers on and off stage.
He noted that three other groups from Utah — The Brigham Young University Singers under the direction of Ron Staheli; the Salt Lake Children's Choir, directed by Chip Woodward and the Woods Cross Madrigal Choir — will sing at the convention, having passed a "very, very competitive" audition process to do so.
The choir performed non-stop, just as it will in California, opening with three hymns of praise, each arranged by associate director Mack Wilberg: "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty," "Sing Praise to Him" and "O Love Divine, All Loves Excelling." That set was followed by three "Gloria" pieces, one each from Dvorak, Rachmaninoff and Rimsky-Korsakov. Music of the world was featured in folk songs from Spain, Wales, America and Nigeria. The concert concluded with two more hymns: "How Can I Keep from Singing" and "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing."
