Documentary on Mormon Tabernacle Choir's 2009 summer tour
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(Click here to view a video trailer of the documentary "One Voice: On the Road with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.")
The opportunity to "travel with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir" from the comfort of home is being offered between the Sunday sessions of general conference, April 4, in the form of a documentary produced by BYU TV that brings to life the sights, sounds and emotions of the choir's 2009 summer tour, June 18-30. The documentary, which runs just under an hour, is titled "One Voice: On the Road with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir."
The tour began in Cincinnati with a performance with the Cincinnati Pops. The documentary captures one of America's great music directors, Erich Kunzel, proclaiming that the Tabernacle Choir is in a category by itself: "the best." Mr. Kunzel, who was known as "the Prince of Pops," died just weeks after directing the choir.
The tour, joined by the Orchestra at Temple Square, continued with performances in St. Louis, Mo.; Des Moines, Iowa; Omaha, Neb.; Kansas City Mo.; Norman, Okla.; and at Red Rocks Amphitheatre near Denver, Colo.
Jim Bell, senior producer of BYU Broadcasting and director of the documentary — said that he and co-producer and co-director Matt Eastin came up with the idea of going on tour with the choir about a year before the 2009 tour. He contacted Mac Christensen, president of the choir; Scott Barrick, the choir's general manager; and Barry Anderson, the organization's administrative manager, and gained their support for making the documentary.
"Our idea with the documentary was to explore how Barry and his army go about taking 600 people on the road — moving them from city to city, housing them, feeding them, getting them to sound checks, and, most important, keeping them fresh for all the performances, which often came at the end of long, grueling days," Brother Bell said.
"How they do that is an overwhelming undertaking in and of itself, but the other idea we wanted to explore was why the choir does this. Why does management go to all this work, why do choir members take two weeks out of their lives to go on tour, why does a small army of volunteers work day and night — driving trucks, setting up stages, selling CDs, coordinating all the venues — to do all that they do to take the choir on tour?"
Brother Bell said that his crew "was just overwhelmed with the devotion of the choir and orchestra members, with their sacrifices, and with their absolute love of music and joy in the chance to touch lives as they share their talents and gifts."
Brother Bell and his 10-member film crew spent lots of long days with the choir, in the midst of record-breaking heat in every city on the tour.
"I was continually amazed that, while keeping a pace that would do in most people, I never heard a single complaint or a murmur of frustration. Instead, what I heard were continuous expressions of appreciation for the opportunity to be with audiences night after night and share together in the gift of song and the message of the gospel."
Brother Barrick said that the BYU TV documentary crew did "an excellent job of capturing what it means to be on tour with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and showing the joys of presenting concerts and the rigors of being on the road for almost two weeks."
BYU TV, in cooperation with the Church Audiovisual Department, filmed the choir's last concert of the tour at the famed Red Rocks Amphitheatre outside Denver, Colo. The Red Rocks Concert special is 90 minutes long and provides an excellent example of what the public sees when the choir performs on tour.
The documentary on the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s 2009 summer tour will air on BYU TV as follows:
April 4 at noon
April 6 at 9:30 p.m.
April 13 at 1:30 p.m.
April 13 at 7:30 p.m.
April 17 at 11 p.m.
The Tabernacle Choir’s concert, “One Voice: The Mormon Tabernacle Choir Live at Red Rocks,” will air on BYU TV as follows:
April 4 at 5:30 p.m.
April 6 at 8 p.m.
April 10 at 9 p.m.
April 13 at 12 p.m. and 6 p.m.
Additional airing times can be found on mormontabernaclechoir.org and on byubroadcasting.org.
