With a distinctively Nordic flavor, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Orchestra at Temple Square presented their annual Christmas concert in two performances Dec. 15-16, featuring internationally acclaimed Norwegian soprano Sissel Kyrkjeb?, who performs and records simply under her first name, Sissel.
Featured also at the choir's nationwide Sunday morning broadcast Dec. 17, Sissel was warmly complimented after the broadcast sign-off by President Gordon B. Hinckley, who quipped that she sings so well under one name, "we wonder how you would sound if you sang with both names!"
Speaking in front of the live audience in the Conference Center, the Church president said, "It is such a tremendous honor to have you here. Thank you for coming. We're so blessed, and I can't help admiring you.
When you speak in English, you speak perfect English without any dialect." Then, he jokingly added, "When you speak in Norwegian, I don't know how you sound!"
For her part, Sissel was unreservedly appreciative of the opportunity to perform with the choir and orchestra.
"It has been such a fantastic moment in my life to come here, and I really feel like I've met a family, a family that I didn't know earlier, but now I know them," she said in response to President Hinckley's remarks. "And President, your words really warmed my heart so much. Thank you."
He responded, "You have performed with the best in all the world. They don't come any better than these people."
It was not the first collaboration between Sissel and the choir. She performed with them on the broadcast in May 2005 in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Norway's independence.
Speaking of that occasion during a pre-concert news conference Dec. 15, she said, "I thought of it as a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and then I was invited back (to perform at the Christmas concert), so that was wonderful."
At the news conference, music director Craig Jessop introduced Sissel as having "the voice of an angel and the face of angel."
He said this year's concert was extraordinary "and that's because of the remarkable talents of Sissel, who sings so effortlessly and beautifully and has a hypnotizing effect on everyone who hears her voice."
In response to a question, she said Christmas has been a big part of her personal life. "And for me to sing Christmas songs, to sing Christmas carols, is something that I just have to do. I can't help it. The music is so beautiful and the gospel is so important for me."
Sissel, who is a member of another faith, described her first meeting with the choir and orchestra in 2005 as "love at first sight."
"I felt at home," she said. "It feels very natural for me to be here." In response to a later question, she praised the choir for making her feel so welcome. "Even though there are so many people, you feel like it's a unity of love you're just given. And I think it has something to do with the fact that what they bring to life is what they believe, and they give it to you. It's just an enormous portion of love that you're covered with."
Asked about how she observes Christmas at home in Norway, she spoke of the Norwegian and Swedish tradition of Lucia Day, observed Dec. 13, in which a young girl portrays Santa Lucia, dressed in a white gown and wearing a crown of candles. The tradition, she said symbolizes the coming of light into the lives of people.
That tradition was represented at the concert in the Conference Center during Sissel's performance of "Vitae Lux" which means "Light of Life." Brother Jessop praised the choreography of Carol Iwasaki, head of the ballet department of the University of Utah, who created a dance performed during the song, involving young women dressed in Lucia costumes.
"Carol has captured the authenticity and the simplicity of a folk tradition," he said, "and that follows immediately with five ballerinas, choreographed to a contemporary, a capella choral piece called 'Lux Aurumque' by Eric Whitaker. These five angels seem to just float in space. That's a new element, and I think it's quite spectacular.
"So it's a fusion of the arts; it's not just music, but also this element of dance. I think it's really a wonderful snapshot of what the human spirit is capable of doing."
He also praised another song Sissel performed, "Mitt Hjerte Alltid Vanker," meaning "My Heart Always Wanders." He said he had passed over it rather quickly when Sissel first submitted it for consideration, but was soon persuaded to include it in the program when he was uged to reconsider it.
Sissel explained, "It says, 'My heart always wanders to the room where Jesus was born, and my thoughts and my longing are with Him. And only for Him will I live and die, because He will always be in my heart.' So it's one of the most beautiful traditional Christmas carols, traditional folk songs, we have."
Brother Jessop noted that the program also included some narrative work by Sissel, her reading of the Christmas story in Luke. He said Sissel was at first reluctant to do the reading because she regards herself as a singer, not an actress. "But I must say, her reading of the gospel of Luke is very powerful in its simplicity, its honesty. There's a lot of credit that she's not an actress, because there's such warmth and genuine belief behind the words. We're very, very happy that she said yes to that."
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