Choir returns home for events on Easter weekend
E-mail story
It's easy. Send a link to the story you were just reading to a friend. Just fill out the form on this page and we'll send it along.
Your name and e-mail address are transmitted to the recipient. Otherwise, it is considered private information; see Privacy policy.
On Easter weekend, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir came home to the Salt Lake Tabernacle — the historic, 140-year-old venue which gave the choir its name — for a dedicatory concert and the first presentation of the nationwide radio and television broadcast "Music and the Spoken Word" since the Tabernacle was reopened following extensive renovation.
Both the concert, presented April 6 and repeated the following evening, and the broadcast on Sunday morning, April 8, featured the choir's companion organization, the Orchestra at Temple Square. The Bells on Temple Square also performed at the concert. Music director Craig Jessop and associate music director Mack Wilberg alternately wielded the baton at the concert, with all three Tabernacle organists — John Longhurst, Clay Christiansen and Richard Elliott — taking turns at the console of the world-famous pipe organ.
"The beloved Salt Lake Tabernacle was rededicated by President Gordon B. Hinckley on Saturday, March 31, 2007, during the afternoon session of general conference," Choir announcer Lloyd Newell said in his introduction to the concert. "These dedicatory concerts celebrate the reopening of this grand historic building through words, music and visual imagery. Through a happy coincidence, this is also Easter weekend, when the choir and orchestra have traditionally performed in celebration of the greatest events of the Christian faith, the Atonement and Resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ.
"The concert repertoire celebrates both events with works by significant Latter-day Saint composers Leroy Robertson, Alexander Schreiner, Frank Asper, Crawford Gates, Robert Cundick and our own Mack Wilberg, as well as the choral masters Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Handel and Brahms."
A highlight of the 90-minute concert program and the broadcast was "Hymn of Praise," a work composed expressly for the occasion by Brother Wilberg, with text written by David Warner, director of the Music and Cultural Arts Division of the Church. It was inspired by a hymn text written by Eliza R. Snow for the first general conference in the Salt Lake Tabernacle, held Oct. 6, 1867.
At the concert, a video presentation, "The Sound Must Go Forth from This Place into All the World," was shown on large screens. It featured statements of Church presidents, from Brigham Young to Gordon B. Hinckley, delivered over the years in the Tabernacle.
The dedicatory concert is the first offering of a "Salt Lake Tabernacle Concert Series Gala" which, over the next few months, will feature the Utah Symphony and Welsh baritone Bryn Terfel, who was featured at the 2003 Christmas concert of the choir and orchestra and who will be performing in the Tabernacle for the first time.
The Music and the Spoken Word broadcast on Sunday morning featured some of the same selections that were in the concert program, in addition to other hymns and anthems pertaining to Easter.
The First Presidency and several members of the Quorum of the Twelve and other Church leaders attended the broadcast. Afterward, President Hinckley posed for a "choir family" photo that included singers and other musicians, staff, technicians, stage crew and others affiliated with the choir.
Because the choir and orchestra will be on summer tour on President Hinckley's 97th birthday, June 23, he was presented early birthday tributes, including a version of "Always," the lyrics of which were modified to honor the Church leader. The choir family then sang "Happy Birthday" to President Hinckley.
E-mail to: rscott@desnews.com
