MTC Week#1 - It Begins

Jan 2, 2014 - As many of you have inquired as to how the choir is going, I thought I'd start sending out a weekly "journal entry" if you will, of my experiences. By no means am I inferring that my experiences are any better or more important than the ones you're having as the Lord gives us all the experiences we need to learn and grow and become who we need to be. However, since this is a somewhat unique experience and one that I constantly get questions about, I thought a weekly update might be of value. So with that intro, I'll begin with week one of my Mormon Tabernacle Choir (MTC) experience! 

 Last Thursday was deemed as "Choir Orientation" and also Day #1 of our Choir School. (Just to get things clear, Thursdays are Choir School where we learn listening skills, singing techniques, music theory, and the like. Tuesdays are Chorale days, where we work on getting songs ready for our eventual Chorale Concert.) Anyhow, I drove into Salt Lake with a friend of mine who made the choir, and who I sang with while in Utah Voices (community choir),

Ben Blauer

named Ben Bauer. Dressed in standard choir attire (slacks and collared shirt), we flashed our newly acquired security badge to park at the Conference Center and then flashed it again to enter a tunnel that led from the parking lot to the Tabernacle. As we found our room, they took our picture, we signed in, grabbed a binder with our name on it, and sat down at tables arranged in alphabetical order. I scanned the room to finally lay eyes on the others who had made the choir and then chatted a bit with a younger woman who sat next to me (she's just finishing college) about try-outs and about our music background. Promptly at six, the Choir President (Ron Jarrett) stood and welcomed us all there. He proceeded to introduce others on the Choir Staff telling us a little of what they did, and then the director of the choir, Bro. Mack Wilberg got up and gave us a few words.

Mack Wilberg

Bro. Wilberg, after welcoming us himself, said that he needed to get a few things "out of the way." He said we needed to learn six very important words: EVERYTHING IS DONE FOR A REASON. He had us recite those words and said that every time he lifted up his hand, he wanted us to say them. He then told us about five reasons why we'd be very disappointed during our time in the choir. We'd be disappointed if we thought were were going to be on TV. Some in the choir have never been on TV and depending on where you sat, you may never get much of a chance to be on TV. We'd be disappointed if we had particular songs we had composed ourselves that we wanted the choir to sing. "No," he said. "Don't call us, we'll call you if we need your songs." We'd be disappointed if we expected that we'd be able to perform solos while in the choir. "Again," he said with a smile. "We'll let you know." You'll be disappointed if you feel like you have lots of suggestions to share or feel like we should be doing things a different way then we're doing them. "This choir has been around a LONG time, and we've pretty much considered every way of doing things." After each of those "you'll be disappointed" statements, he had us recite those six important words. After that though, he very seriously told us that the audition process is a very prayerful process and he ensured us that we had been selected because the Lord wanted us to be in the choir at this time.

Ryan Murphy

Ryan Murphy, who is the assistant or associate director, got up next and built upon what Bro. Wilberg had said about the prayerful audition process. He said that it's easy to think, that in a choir of 400, you really don't matter that much. However, you each have specific gifts you can bring to the choir and your voice and testimony, along with those gifts, matter very much to the overall effect the choir has on people. He then read a letter of a church member who had written him a couple of months ago.

The letter shared an experience of a mother who had lost her daughter and how one of the songs Bro. Murphy had directed during conference was the same song that had been highlighted at her daughter's funeral. She told Bro. Murphy that because of that song, she felt an overwhelming amount of Heavenly Father's love at a time she really needed it--and thanked him for being in tune to pick that song. Bro. Murphy then said that such letters from members and non-members alike, are common and are frequent. 

 After that, they took us all on a tour of the Tabernacle--the underground portion which I can tell you right now, is full of catacombs, hidden offices, and tunnels galore. I think I was more turned around and confused after the tour! They showed us the large library (the choir sings about six pieces a week, so times that by weeks in a year and the # of choir members and, well, you can do the math), the large dressing rooms, and our lockers where we store our folders, etc. The time we were taking the tour happened to coincide with when the regular choir members were arriving for practice. I got to see several I

Scott Russon

knew in the choir, including Bro. Scott Russon who, upon seeing me, put his arm around me and gave me a very big welcome :) Sometimes I just stop and think, "Is this all real?" 

 The rest of the night was filled with our first school session and we focused on critical listening skills (listening to various choirs sing and jotting down what we heard, both the good and the bad), and on the importance of posture. You would have laughed to see us all walking around the room with a hymn book balanced on our heads and the various other exercises we did relating to posture and poise. One of the goals is to have us all look as unified as possible and without good posture, that isn't possible. 

This morning, Sunday, we attended a Wardrobe Meeting where they told us all about the suits we'd be getting, the 14 ties, the shirts, and everything else. We got measured and then we went up to "the loft" (which refers to where the choir sings) and we observed the Music and the Spoken Word broadcast. I don't remember ever having been there to see one so it was really great. 

As I watched them sing, I had to shake my head in wonder again to think I'd be in those chairs soon. 

Strange. 

I felt very grateful and very humbled. 

All in all, it was a great first week. I'm very excited and it has been fun getting to know other new choir members. 

I leave with you a few FYI tidbits: 

1. The Choir School and Chorale go for 16 weeks after which I'll be singing in the actual choir. During the 16 weeks, I'll get to sing in one Music and the Spoken Word (in March) and will also get to sing at April Conference. 
2. As soon as the new choir members actually join the choir, there will be about 415 of us. 
3. The church pays for all of what we wear. They also take care of the dry cleaning and laundering. 
4. The choir goes on tour EVERY OTHER year. Since they were on one last year, the next one will be in 2015. Spouses can go. Church pays for the tour, minus the spouse costs. 
5. There are over 100 volunteers who work behind the scenes to make the choir successful. The main staff (ten of them) are paid positions. 
6. The demographics of the new choir members are probably 60% age 50+, while 25% are my age or thereabouts and 15% younger. 
7. I don't yet know about ticket "perks". I wish I did because that is the question I get the most asked about. 

I think that wraps up newsletter #1. I'm grateful for my wife and kids who continue to be so supportive and continue to endure the topic of the choir that seems to come up often when we're out and about :) 

Until next time, God be with you!