mike and ruth

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.

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.

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. 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.

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.