The Mormon Tabernacle Choir has been making and selling recordings for nearly the length of its 76-year broadcasting career, but it is exploring a new frontier these days, having founded its own recording label 2 1/2 years ago.
What perhaps seemed a daring move has already proven to be a prudent one: Since the label was launched in March of 2003 in partnership with Deseret Book, the choir in combination with the Orchestra at Temple Square has produced a catalogue of seven CDs, six DVDs and two books.
The success of the undertaking can be gauged by the fact that the newest release "Love Is Spoken Here," debuted at the No. 3 position on Billboard magazine's Classical Crossover Chart the third week in September. It is an album of several Primary songs and other works that appeal to children. Craig Jessop, the choir's musical director and grandfather of three, said he noticed a need when his children were putting their young one's to sleep with music but had no Tabernacle Choir recordings to use for that purpose.
Its immediate success continues a winning trend set by past albums. The March 2004 release, "Peace Like a River," has been on the magazine's traditional Classical Chart for over a year. And at one point three of the label's CDs were among the top 10 on the Classical Crossover Chart simultaneously: "Peace Like a River," "America's Choir" (released June 2004), and "Choose Something Like a Star" (released in February of this year). That got the attention of the magazine, which contacted Brother Jessop to discuss how such a feat was being accomplished.
"It's been a very long time since we've had anything on the top charts prior to our own label," said Brother Jessop in a Church News interview.
But successful sales are only the icing on the cake.
"I think having our own recording label has given us an artistic freedom that the choir never has enjoyed before to the extent we do now, because we have total control over the product," he explained, "what we record, when we record, how we record, in partnership with Deseret Book, who understands our needs, who knows our audience. It's a partnership made in heaven, and the sales and the response have been overwhelming to me. I thought maybe 10 years from now we might be where we are right now, and we're just in our third year."
Increased artistic freedom also brings a benefit to the Church, which may now use a Tabernacle Choir recording — say, for a motion picture or other production — without seeking permission from a national commercial recording label.
And the partnership with Deseret Book as distributor means that, as pertaining to its recordings, the choir is in better touch than ever before with its most loyal and adoring audience.
"What we've really tried to do at Deseret Book is to bring the choir back to its core audience, which is the LDS market," said Jana Erickson, product director. "When they were with the national recording label, their audience was more outside of the LDS bookstores where our customers shop. Much of the time they weren't aware of the new releases or didn't have access to them. The LDS audience was really not aware of what the choir was doing in terms of their recordings. This new label has really brought the audience and the choir's recordings together in an effective way."
In fact, said Scott Barrick, the choir's business manager, "we're still kind of working at cracking the national market. We still sell more CDs in the LDS market than nationally." That is due, he said, to the fact that the national market is controlled by a small number of large accounts and it is necessary to get marketers' attention and persuade them to put the products on the market.
And yet, he said, "you can almost always find a Mormon Tabernacle Choir CD in almost every record outlet you go to. But the question is whether you find a Mormon Tabernacle Choir Label CD." In a sense, the choir competes with itself, because its older releases are still being marketed by CBS/Sony, albeit at a lower price because they are not new recordings.
But the choir's releases on its own label have the advantage of a freshness that many listeners have noticed. Obviously, part of that is the presence of the orchestra, a professional caliber but volunteer organization, allowing the choir to produce its product at far less cost than if the musicians were hired.
"A lot of the previous choir recordings were choir and organ, and they were lovely, but there's a dimension the orchestra adds that we just couldn't have without it," Brother Barrick remarked.
Two other elements contribute to the freshness, he noted. One is the vocal school implemented by Jerold and JoAnn Ottley at the time Brother Ottley retired as the choir's musical director. These days, new choir members must undergo a 12-week course in the school and sing in two sessions of the Temple Square Chorale before becoming full-fledged members of the choir.
The other element, Brother Barrick said, is "the fabulous arrangements of Mack Wilberg," the choir's associate director. "They showcase the choir and magnify their talents." And as a practical matter, since his arrangements are in-house, they can be performed without the necessity of obtaining performance releases.
So far, the choir has produced about two new releases a year under its own label, one of them being the popular Christmas concert put on each year along with such stellar guest artists as Angela Lansbury, Walter Cronkite, Fredrica von Stade and Bryn Terfel. DVDs of these performances are also released. Two books have been published in partnership with Deseret Book's Shadow Mountain imprint, the one being a printed version of Mr. Cronkite's narration at the 2002 Christmas concert telling a World War II-era story about Christmas on the battlefield; and the other being a collection of "Spoken Word" sermonettes given during the choir's nationwide weekly broadcast.
"We hope someday to have the Orchestra at Temple Square do their own recordings" under the choir's label, Brother Barrick said. "I don't think that day is very far away."
Beyond that, he said, "there are still so many avenues we have to think about. The burgeoning digital music industry is something we're trying to wrap our arms around. More and more music is being purchased on line; with our label, we don't have any presence there yet."
In any event, the new label is helping to fulfill a dream of choir president Mac Christensen to expose the talents of the choir's vocalists and orchesta's musicians as widely as possible. "We just want every person in the world to hear and be touched by them," he said.
E-mail to: rscott@desnews.com
