As Tuesday rolled around this past week, I launched the Facebook app from my phone as I normally do a couple of times a day. Going through my feed, I saw a couple of entries from Choir members who reminded me that normally we'd all be participating in the typical pre-conference extra rehearsal that evening. The Tuesday rehearsal followed by the Thursday rehearsal before conference are always especially important ones as we try to really "lock-in" and musically prepare the very best we can. Although the weekly Music & the Spoken Word program, numbers-wise, is probably seen by the more people, in 2nd place would be the sessions of General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Preparing for conference is different, though, than preparing for Music & the Spoken Word. Yes, we hope to inspire and uplift those who hear and see us (as is always the goal in everything we do), but we also have the responsibility to help inspire and uplift those who speak and pray at the Conference. One could argue that all the talks given are prepared in advance--so how would our music really change what's being said? Well, maybe it doesn't change what is said. But rather how it is said and in what spirit it's said with.
That all said, because of the continuing response to COVID-19, we did not go to the Tuesday rehearsal or the Thursday one and did not sing at any of the Conference sessions. Instead, the music was chosen from various past General Conference Choir performances. You can read more about that, HERE.
One interesting thing of note. The Church estimated that the Music & the Spoken Word episode that aired right before the Sunday morning session of Conference was likely the MOST watched episode, ever. This is because all of the various broadcasting corporations that the Church works with really came together to allow the Church additional air-time and allowed them to cast a much wider "net" to reach more people. From the Deseret News: "The conference will be broadcast on TV and radio stations in 50 countries, at least a 233% increase over the October 2019 general conference. Church officials worked with governments and stations around the world to expand the number of broadcasts because the pandemic precludes members from gathering in churches to watch a satellite feed, especially in countries that do not have access to streaming video." Because of all of these efforts, it's estimated that nearly 1.4 BILLION people watched Music & the Spoken Word. To put that in perspective, most Super Bowls have an viewership of only 115 million. Wow. As for the episode itself, it was actually a rebroadcast from the Oct 2017 General Conference, with a few added graphical changes, including the choir's new logo and new closing credits.
As I watched the sessions and listened to the music, I of course wished I could be singing live. But I had had plenty of time to prepare this go around for the fact that that would not be the case. So I was OK with it. I enjoyed the spirit of the music surrounded by my wife and kids, and also enjoyed seeing choir friends I haven't seen in quite some time now, up on the TV screen. I reached out to a few of them via text letting them know I was thinking about them and I received a few of such texts as well. So it was all good.
It's hard to say at this point if the Choir will be back together for April 2021 Conference. But as seems to be the predominant way of thinking and feeling these days--one can only hope!
Until next time, God be with you.
PS: if there was a song that perhaps personified my feelings the last couple of days, it'd be this one.
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