Early Morning for Choir, Director, and Soloist

Here is a story from LDS Church News about an early-morning event that had me driving to Temple Square at 4:10 in the morning today.

Soloist Brian Stokes Mitchell

Soloist Brian Stokes Mitchell

Before sunrise, at 5:30 a.m. on Dec. 1, the members of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir will dress in full concert attire and file into their seats in the loft of the Conference Center in Salt Lake City. With Musical Director Mack Wilberg and Broadway star Brian Stokes Mitchell, they will beam mini-performances to television stations from Atlanta to Detroit, Charlotte to Minneapolis as part of a satellite media tour. The tour also will include network feeds to NBC, Fox and the Associated Press. The elaborate media, film, lighting and recording capabilities in the LDS Conference Center make possible the connections across the country. These feeds will put the musical director and Tony Award-winner Mitchell on camera for chats with the anchors of morning shows at a host of local stations talking about the new Choir CD and DVD, both titled “Ring Christmas Bells.” These recently released products were recorded live at the 2008 Christmas concert to four packed audiences totaling 85,000. During December 2009, the program will air on television stations across the country.

Watch for the broadcast on your local PBS stations between now and Christmas Day. Brian Stokes Mitchell was “over the moon” about the finished product. He told the choir that he usually does not listen to his own recordings at all, but was tempted to see this DVD and put it on by himself to see. “Not bad”, was his fiirst comment to himself. Then he continued to watch and was extremely pleased with it. He is in the area signing CDs and DVDs of the concert at local bookstores today. We really enjoyed working with him and found him to be a consummate artist in every way. This is a great one — watch for it!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 at 8:27 pm and is filed under Dad. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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