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A few Men from the Tabernacle Choir — at BYU

Monday, June 6th, 2011

Cosmo directs our group for the audience

“The Men of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir”, a new CD from the Tabernacle Choir has been celebrated many times in recent weeks and months since its release in March. This week the men of the choir were invited to participate in a short presentation at BYU for a Book Festival. I was among about 22 men who were included in the group to participate in the book fair by singing a few of the pieces from the album in person. We had a good time, especially when Cosmo the Cougar stepped up to conduct us. This photo was taken from the Tabernacle Choir’s Facebook page. I have my own photo with Cosmo that I will post here shortly. We had a fun time, on one of the first sunny Saturdays we have had in several months.

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A Night for dinner and the Utah Symphony

Tuesday, May 10th, 2011

Richard Elliott in the Salt Lake Tabernacle

When Richard Elliott was announced as a guest artist at the Utah Symphony concerts on May 6 and 7, Grandpa was very interested and we decided to go together as a family (me and my brothers and sisters and spouses and grandpa) to hear him play with the Orchestra. We went on Friday evening, May 6.

Rick Elliott at the Tabernacle Organ console.

Eli got us reservations, so before the evening’s concert we went together for dinner at Bucca di Beppo downtown. It was a nice place with much authentic Italian food and a relaxed but very nice atmosphere. We had a nice time visiting with each other during dinner, and then walked to the concert afterwards in the cool spring evening. There was no snow or rain, which was a welcome relief for this extraordinarily wet late winter and spring.
We arrived in good time at Abravanel Hall and met each other there to take our seats at the rear of the concert hall on the third tier. They were all together in the first two rows. It was nice to visit the hall again, I used to work there recording concerts of the Symphony twice a week for seven years, and so I have many memories of the place.
The music included the Stravinsky Scherzo Fantastique, the Poulenc Concerto in g minor for Organ, Strings, and Tympani, and the Saint-Saens Symphony No. 3 “Organ”. The orchestra had a new Rodgers Organ shipped from Hillsboro Oregon and installed on the stage. It was a three-manual digital organ which was next to the conductor’s podium stage right for the concerto, and at the back of the first violins on stage right for the Symphony. The playing was wonderful on everyone’s part. I especially enjoyed the outstanding brass players of the orchestra with the sonority of the organ in the Symphony, and the strings were bright and shimmery at the appropriate times for the Poulenc Concerto. The colors of the Stravinsky made it a welcome addition to the beginning of the concert, a kind of 20th century musical watercolor that was easy to listen to as well as very cheerful in its demeanor most of the way through. Bravo Rick! We loved the concert and your collaboration with the orchestra was brilliant!

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Summer appears to be here (finally)!

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

Summer Flowers are here!

This year spring came and went, came and went (back to late winter) and then finally Summer appears to have arrived the week following our last snowstorm. This is one of the most beautiful times of the year as long as the periodic cold weather doesn’t kill your young plants in the garden, or the heat do the same. We are trying to get some things out in our garden space and have been somewhat successful, but the weeds this year are more persistent than last year so it will take more work to fight them off. We used some 2-4-D on the grass last year and need to to it again this year but it is too hot this week to apply it. Hopefully a few cool days will be here next week and this chore may be taken care of to get rid of the morning glory in the lawn and help the grass grow more vigorously without burning it.

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Mormon Youth Symphony & Chorus Reunion

Monday, June 21st, 2010

There was a pair of reunion concerts held this past weekend for former members of the discontinued group sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The group was formed in 1969 by the Church Music Committee and directed for the first five years by Jay E. Welch.

With friend and Director Robert C. Bowden

When Dr. Welch was called to become the Director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in 1974, Robert C. Bowden was called as the Director of MYSC and remained in that position until 1999 when the group’s last concert was held in August of that year and the group was then officially disbanded. It was a great experience working again with Bob, and a special treat was that I got to share a stand with my good friend Gerry Omer.

Gerry and Mike together again!

We got acquainted many years ago when we were boys taking from the same violin teacher, and then got to know each other much better during the first year of MYSC. Gerry went to Germany on a mission in 1970. I was certain I would also go to a German-speaking mission and see him there in 1971 since I had taken three years of high school German and was taking German at the University of Utah. However I ended up being called to Italy and was forced by the circumstances to push the German out in order to learn Italian. We had a wonderful “reunion” ourselves in the orchestra, and thoroughly enjoyed the music and the experience. The blue ties we have on represent members from the 1970s. The sisters wore scarves of the same color. Members from the 1980s wore red ties and scarves, those from the 1990s wore yellow. There was a get-together at This is the Place Monument that reportedly was a great time for all involved. I was at work that day, so was not sunburned like many of the other participants were on Saturday night and Sunday morning. Saturday evening there was a reception where former members of this organization were able to meet and greet each other. I saw many friends and associates from that time of my life, and it was great to see them and remember the great times we had with each other.

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Tabernacle Choir: New CD in the works

Saturday, May 22nd, 2010

Working through a section of music. (Note blankets on the seats.)

The Choir and Orchestra just finished a series of recording sessions for a new CD featuring the men of the choir. The sessions stretched all week. We were at the Tabernacle for recordings every night from Tuesday night to Friday night, and all day Saturday (today). We return to the Tabernacle tomorrow morning for our weekly broadcast of Music and the Spoken Word. This will make six days in a row we have met at Temple Square to make music together. The Broadcast will feature two of the pieces we recorded for the new CD including “Discovery” or Landsighting, by Edvard Grieg with Baritone soloist Clayton Breynard. This is a piece that is very meaningful to me. The choir sang this piece the weekend I was in the Salt Lake City Missionary Home prior to leaving for Language Training for my missionary assignment. At that time all the missionaries went to the Choir Broadcast together. I remember hearing that piece (which I already knew) being sung at that time. My father was a member of the choir at that time as well, making it extra special for me. That was also the last time I heard Richard Evans as the commentator for the choir. He passed away about three weeks later. This recording will be unique because of the content and because of the varying styles it will contain. A few of the other pieces on the new recording include “The Morning Trumpet,” “Lullaby” by Billy Joel, “Hush Little Baby and “Non Nobis Domine” from Henry V. I look forward to its release! The Choir website has news about this new recording at the choir’s website, http://mormontabernaclechoir.org.

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Special Tabernacle Choir Tour Programs on TV

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

Mormon Tabernacle Choir in a performance at the world-famous Mormon Tabernacle

As you know, I’m a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Last summer, the Choir went on tour to the Central States region of the U.S. Our friends at BYU Broadcasting accompanied us and shot hundreds of hours of footage. Out of that footage from various venues has come a documentary entitled “One Voice” which will air in April on BYU Television. I was able to see the preview of it and I wanted to make sure you had a chance to see it when it airs.

The special really captures what it’s like when the Choir goes on tour. If you click on this link (http://byutv.org/onevoice) you can see a short trailer about the documentary. It will air for the first time on BYU-TV between sessions of LDS General Conference on Sunday, April 4th. You can click here for all the currently published airtimes. BYU-TV has also made a 90-minute special of the Choir’s last concert of the 2009 tour at Red Rocks outside Denver.

I hope you’ll enjoy both shows.

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A New Orchestra Member Plays Debut Broadcast

Monday, March 1st, 2010

Mark, Neil and Mike in Conference Center lower hallway

A new trombone player was on stage for the Sunday Music and the Spoken Word Broadcast this past weekend. Neil joined the brass section for the first time to perform with the orchestra since he was called last Summer after vigorous recuiting effors by one of the Associate Orchestra Managers. Neil has had a distinguished carreer already,

Debut performer with his choir-member brothers

performing as a substitute with the Utah Sympnony Orchestra, and as a regular player in the orchestras of Utah Ballet and Pioneer Memorial Theatre, and with the Salt Lake Jazz Ensemble. His work with his high school choir keeps him very busy as well as his frequent adjudication jobs around the country. These have precluded the possibility of singing with the choir since his available time is found at odd times during the year. We look forward to seeing him more often in future performances and are excited to welcome another family member into the Choir organization.

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Debris left on the freeway can be deadly

Monday, February 8th, 2010

We were on our way to St. George for the UMEA Convention about midnight Thursday night after choir rehearsal, hoping to get there soon enough to get a few hours sleep before having to go to the convention center. Mom decided to go so we left a little later than I had hoped to get away. As we approached the South Nephi/Levan exit I suddenly saw in the darkness what I thought was a large living room sofa in the middle of my lane. I swerved into the left lane (there was no other traffic) and hit it with a somewhat glancing blow that ended up breaking off the passenger side of my front bumper, just missing the headlight, and pulling halfway off the rear bumper cover so it now drags on the ground when driving. We pulled off to the side of the road to see what damage it had caused, and hoped to get back to it and move it off of the road so someone else would not also hit it. As soon as I got out of the car, a semi hit it dead center and pulled off to the side of the road behind us. The truck driver and I went back to see what it was, joined by Mom.

Expanded metal shelf on steel frame

Expanded metal shelf on steel frame

It ended up being one of those shelves made of tubular steel covered with expanded metal, designed to fit into the receiver for a trailer hitch on the back of a car, smaller than the ones on pickups and cars like our Suburban. This shelf had at least two dozen backpacks and duffle bags with clothing, shoes, and other personal effects including library books and homework that were now scattered in a wide area across both lanes of traffic southbound on the freeway.
Debris scattered across both freeway lanes.

Debris scattered across both freeway lanes.

The photo of the debris field is lighted by the headlights of two highway patrol cruisers on high beam and taken from near the cars looking west. The semi can be seen on the upper-right of the photo. We were parked in front of it. When debris like this is encountered by someone driving a smaller vehicle it can be very dangerous if it is hit, and also dangerous because of those trying to swerve around such obstacles if there is traffic.
scion

Here is the broken-off corner that hit the debris

Please be aware of things you may be transporting and report any kind of debris immediately to the highway patrol so it can be removed from the road space as quickly as possible. This debris in the road caused several thousand dollars of damage to the two vehicles that hit it. I believe that if I had hit this directly we could have been very seriously injured or killed. I am grateful that we were not hurt and the semi driver was not hurt either. We were both quite upset at the situation but also pacified that neither of us were injured personally.

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Early Morning for Choir, Director, and Soloist

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

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!

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Christmas (Concert) is Coming Soon!

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

Guests Edward Herrman, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Mack Wilberg, Director and Mac Christensen, President

Guests Edward Herrman, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Mack Wilberg, Director and Mac Christensen, President in front of the concert stage

The concert of the season for members of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is the one that takes place the second full week in December each year. It requires us to be at many extra rehearsals during November and December and means we will have little time to do shopping or spend with our families until the performances have taken place. These photos from last year’s concerts show our superb guests with whom we spent a fair amount of time and got to know fairly well.
Guests Edward Herrman and Brian Stokes Mitchell

Guests Edward Herrman and Brian Stokes Mitchell

We were very fortunate to have secured their services for the concerts. This year we look forward to working with and getting to know in a small way Natalie Cole and her special artistry. Hope you are able to get to one of the concerts in Salt Lake City, taking place Thursday to Saturday December 10-12, 2009 at 7:30 p.m., and also Sunday morning Dec. 12, 2009 at 9:30 a.m. Tickets are already all distributed (the performances take place in the 21,000-seat Conference Center) but many hundreds of standby patrons are usually admitted to each performance. Thursday evening or Sunday morning’s performances are usually easier to get into as a standby patron. Please come!

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