Provo, UT

It’s my personal opinion that wherever you live, you should try to experience all the things for which your city or state is renowned. So last month I took my family to watch the world-famous Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s weekly rehearsal. The rehearsal is open to the public, and held Thursday nights from 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. The rehearsal is normally held at the tabernacle in Temple Square, but during the month of December it’s held at the LDS Conference Center to accommodate larger crowds.

Accordingly, I expected there to be standing room only, but there were relatively few people (considering the conference center seats thousands), maybe 50-100 coming and going throughout the course of the rehearsal. Don’t go expecting a complete run-through of their program, as they’ll only be rehearsing a few songs for the weekly radio and television broadcast, Music and the Spoken Word. You certainly won’t be disappointed in the songs that you do hear, as “America’s Choir” (nicknamed by Ronald Reagan) has a distinct and heavenly sound in unison with the massive pipe organ.

MoTab is one of the oldest and largest choirs in the world, established in the mid-1800s. The choir’s 360 talented singers are all volunteers, and all are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Over the past 16o years, the choir has performed for ten presidents and at the opening games of the 2002 Olympics, won awards, and sold millions of records (including two platinum and five gold albums). Music and the Spoken Word is “the world’s longest-running continuous network broadcast.”

For all it’s grandeur, there’s still a personal touch at the rehearsals. At the one we attended, the choir director welcomed the spectators (about half of whom, by a show of hands, were visiting from other states and countries) and talked briefly about the history of the choir. The director also introduced an elderly woman who was fulfilling a lifelong dream by singing with the choir for the first time.

Although there is a massive pipe organ at the conference center, I do hope to attend a rehearsal at the tabernacle to hear the famous 11,623-pipe organ and the legendary acoustics. Still, it was interesting to watch how all of the parts of a song come together, and for part of the rehearsal the choir was also accompanied by the Temple Square Orchestra. I’m so glad I had the opportunity to hear this renowned choir sing live.

http://www.mormontabernaclechoir.org/