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Eavesdropping on the choir
[Publicity Photo]
The requirements to sing in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir are stringent for an unpaid position, but, after all, this is no ordinary singing group. |
By JUDY STARK
© St. Petersburg Times,
published June 21, 2001
When the Mormon Tabernacle Choir comes to town, its performance is molded by the singers' personal dedication, its history of excellence - and a bit of chiding from the conductor.
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SALT LAKE CITY -- At a recent Thursday night rehearsal of the Salt Lake Mormon Tabernacle Choir, a man seated in the audience pulled out his cell phone. He punched in a number, murmured briefly into the receiver, then held up the phone as the choir sang Men Into Ploughshares Beat Their Swords.
It's just the latest way in which the choir has been heard around the world since it was established in 1847.
Every Thursday night, from 8 to 9:30, the choir rehearses in the Mormon Tabernacle. The rehearsals are open to the public at no charge, so the 4,500-seat building is often full of tourists carrying bags from the Nordstrom department store a few blocks away, or wearing clothing with the Olympic logo that grows more prevalent as the 2002 Winter Games approach.
Also free are the choir's Sunday morning performances, which are broadcast on television and radio. The choir's radio broadcasts, now in their 73rd year, are the longest-running continuous radio broadcast in the nation.
The choir will appear Saturday at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center.
Conductor Craig Jessop tapped his baton and called for a rehearsal of Beethoven's Hallelujah, but first there was a scolding. "On this memorized music there are too many eyes wandering the auditorium looking for a relative or friend," he told the choir. "There's only one place to look" -- at the conductor.
Jessop bounces up and down as he conducts, or he waves his arms almost as though he were swimming through the air to coax out the choir's distinctive sound of rich harmonies and long-held notes.
"Now, it's very important that you observe these diminuendoes or we'll never hear the woodwinds," he said as he worked the choir through a rehearsal of All Creatures of Our God and King. "One more time: Two, three, four . . ."
The choir was established the same year Brigham Young led his band of Mormon pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley. Its 330 unpaid singers must commit to attending 80 percent of all choir functions. That includes Thursday night rehearsals and three hours of performance on Sunday mornings, plus concerts, tours and recordings.
Singers, all members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, are limited to 20-year membership in the choir and must pass stringent auditions and tests.
At this night's rehearsal the choir spent some time going over plans for the two-week tour that brings them to Tampa and seven other Southern cities: where and when plane tickets would be distributed; a request for people with digital cameras to snap photos and send them back via laptop for posting on Web sites, another request for volunteers to appear on Mormon radio broadcasts during the tour.
The doctors, nurses, dentists and physical therapists who are members of the choir were introduced -- just in case anyone starts feeling poorly on the tour -- and one of the organizers made a pitch that the singers isolate themselves if they develop a cold during the trip.
Conductor Jessop led the choir through a rehearsal of Rachmaninoff's The All-Night Vigil No. 7, sung from memory in Russian. "Now, the sopranos and tenors have to have that heavenly choir sound, that boy-soprano sound," he coached them. "There's a certain amount of sadness at the last. Remember, you're always singing on the high side of the pitch."
PREVIEW
The Salt Lake Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Saturday at 8 p.m., Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. Tickets are $24.50-$49.50. Call (813) 229-7827 or toll-free 1-800-955-1045.
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