The Piano Guys joined us as guest performers on today's Music & the Spoken Word broadcast. It was truly nice to have them. I think very highly of both Jon and Steven and the great music they share with the world. Seeing them perform brought back some Christmas related memories for me personally since my wife and I, along with several of my siblings and my parents used to get tickets every year to Jon's Christmas show at Kingsbury Hall. Each show he'd delight us with his amazing piano skills and, invariably, he'd have his good friend Steven Sharp Nelson as a guest on the show to share his amazing skills on the cello. Of course that Jon Schmidt Christmas show ended as soon as The Piano Guys became "a thing" and Jon's gone on to enjoy a much wider audience with Steven and the other two members of the group, Paul Anderson and Al van der Beek.
One thing, among many, that impressed me as I observed them both on Thursday night and this morning, was their devotion to God. In the remarks they made at rehearsal and then publicly as part of the Spoken Word portion of the program today, they are always very quick to thank God for their talents and for being able to share their music with others. They are also very quick to ask for God's help before any rehearsal or performance. This was exemplified on Thursday when they came on stage to rehearse the first piece. Minutes before that, the Choir had opened the rehearsal in prayer as we normally do. But as Jon and Steven weren't there for that portion, they didn't know we had prayed. So, after only a minute or so into the rehearsal, Jon piped up and asked Mack Wilberg if we had said a prayer yet. And after Mack assured him that we had, the rehearsal resumed. It reminded me of a scripture from the Book of Mormon that says "...ye must pray always, and...not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul." (and, if I may add, the welfare of others)
A couple of behind-the-scenes comments from Thursday's rehearsal and today's performance:
First, when Jon and Steven were being officially introduced to us Thursday, each of them took a couple of minutes to say a few words. Steven focused on how one of our main goals should be to fill the "music listening space" with wholesome music that the youth can latch onto instead of them listening to much of the popular music today that's explicit in nature (he cited the fact that on Spotify last year, 14 of the top 20 streamed songs had explicit lyrics). While I don't think that the youth out there will start listening (or listen more) to the Tabernacle Choir or The Piano Guys, the message of producing more wholesome content is definitely a good one.
Second, we had lots of people show up today. They filled the entire main floor of the Conference Center and started filling up various sections of the 2nd floor Terrance as well. I got the sense that several who showed up thought that perhaps The Piano Guys would be featured more on the program--as if they'd be performing sort of a mini-concert. While I think it would have been cool for Jon and Steven to maybe do a few numbers themselves after the broadcast for the audience's sake (since the broadcast can't go longer than 30 min), that's not what happened. That said, I hope they focused on what was in front of them: 30 minutes to feel and hear heaven inspired music.
Third, following the broadcast, the audience was invited to stay if they wanted, to watch us record the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah. Apparently at some future point in time, The Piano Guys will be releasing a video that shows them performing the Hallelujah Chorus (on piano and cello of course) and also shows The Tabernacle Choir somehow intermixed with that performance. I'm not sure how the end result will turn out, but knowing The Piano Guys, I'm sure it'll be very cool.
Fourth, the morning ended with Rick Elliott and Jon Schmidt performing a duet of the song "Waterfall"--which is actually one of Jon's signature songs he plays (or used to at his concerts). While I felt like the organ sort of dominated the duet, it was a pretty cool performance. I've always loved that song.
As for me and my current Choir journey, I felt fairly neutral this week. Which is actually an improvement. So I'll take it. While there aren't a lot of unusual or out-of-the-ordinary Choir performances coming up, I'm going to try my best to find whatever magic is in them.
Until next time, God be with you.
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