Grandpa and Uncle Mark at rehearsal
Men of the choir during a pause in the rehearsal.
A View of the Choir, Orchestra, and the Great Organ.
Grandpa came to the Thursday evening rehearsal as a guest of his three sons who are members, and was a participant during the rehearsal as one of the choir members. This privilege is offered only very sparingly to persons acquainted with choir members, with strict guidelines.
[Grandpa joined the Salt Lake Tabernacle Choir in 1947 at the age of 17, and sang with the choir over a period of 41 years. Part of that time he was serving in other positions that kept him from active participation with the choir. He encouraged Grandma to audition, and they were both choir members before they were married. They became engaged between general conference sessions while participating as choir members. They were both participants in the choir when the famed recording of “Battle Hymn of the Republic” with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra was made back in 1957, but Grandma decided to stay at home with the children shortly after Eric was born. They retired from active participation in the choir in 1988.] Grandpa was invited to sit with the basses, and Uncle Mark was seated next to him. It was an evening of patriotic music as the choir was preparing for the broadcast for Veterans Day. The final piece in the rehearsal was one which used a lot of organ, unlike everything else, which was accompanied by the orchestra. Grandpa really loves the organ and was thrilled to hear it. Happy 80th Birthday!
This entry was posted on Saturday, November 14th, 2009 at 6:41 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. 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.
