Choirs, Churches, and Concerts Oh My!

My second day in Salt Lake was super busy, even for a Sunday. But, as many musicians know, Sunday is a huge day for music. Music is a very special and well loved part of religious services around the world, and my choirmate and I experienced it with one of our hosts.

Last Sunday was Pioneer Day in Utah. The holiday is a Utah-specific holiday honoring the pioneers, most of which were LDS, who made the journey westward in search of religious freedom. We heard that the Mormon Tabernacle Choir was going to be performing at the LDS Conference Center as part of their Music and the Spoken Word broadcast. So, as curious young musicians, we took the opportunity to listen in.

The MT Choir is a pretty massive choir, and if I heard correctly from the MC, is accompanied by a 90 piece orchestra. Pretty impressive. The choir sang music celebrating Pioneer Day. I would describe the music and their sound as being sweet and gentle. It is pleasant to hear, but is not as intense or dramatic as other classical and choral works.

After the concert, my group and I headed to our next activity, which was singing hymns at our hosts’ church’s Sunday service. It was a lot of fun singing the hymns, many of which we were singing for the first time ever, and had only sight-read them half an hour before. The organist played beautifully, and afterwards we joined church members for lemonade in the fellowship hall.