When Janie Thompson was hired by BYU in 1952 to head a small group of student performers, it was a step down from the life she was leading as an award-winning singer performing with the likes of Tony Bennett for servicemen overseas.
In those initial months on the job, nothing about the group — without budget, sound crew or adequate rehearsal space — spoke of world-renowned talent. Traveling up and down the Wasatch Front, the performers were simply a recruiting tool for the school following World War II. Known as the Program Bureau, Sister Thompson led this band of singers and dancers as their dance director, voice teacher, makeup artist, choreographer and composer. Despite a lack of resources, the talented troupe left a great impression on all who saw them. Today, their talent and ambition is largely credited for laying the groundwork for numerous performing groups who travel the world on behalf of BYU, creating much goodwill for the Church as well as unique missionary opportunities.
From dancing in a town square before thousands in Warsaw, Poland, to singing atop the Great Wall of China, to exposing youth in Chile to American Jazz, few have had such international reach and influence as those who take part in CES Performance Tours.
More than 55 years after that first group ventured out to share its talents, over 40 performing groups under the direction of the Church Educational System's Performance Tour Program have been created to touch audiences far and wide with both their incredible talent and engaging spirits (See Sep. 1, 2001, Church News article, "Life of music exceeds wildest expectations").
Creating Understanding
Each year, performers from BYU, BYU-Hawaii, BYU-Idaho and various LDS Institutes of Religion travel nationally and abroad, entering international competitions, performing before thousands in some of the most prestigious venues as well as presenting firesides for Church members and donating much of their proceeds to local nonprofit organizations.
Among their various goals is to broaden students' understanding of cultures while providing the world with a greater understanding of the Church and its members through high-quality performances.
In 2007, BYU-Hawaii's Concert Choir toured China and Mongolia, performing in the Forbidden City Concert Hall and at the Great Wall of China. The group also performed combined shows with local high schools and universities, quickly creating a rapport with the students despite language barriers. Emiko Dodson, a BYU-Hawaii student from Japan said of his experience in China, "I didn't know much about this country before. Yes, we're Asians, but we're different. Meeting the people here made me realize how similar we are, and I have a great love for the people here."
In Xinjiang, an autonomous region in far-western China, approximately half the people are ethnic Uyghurs of Turkic heritage and speak their own language as well as Mandarin Chinese. After the choir performed numbers in Chinese and in Uyghur, the Vice Governor of Xinjiang said through an interpreter, "Their singing is very local, which showed me the level of this choir's performing ability is very high. I will remember this performance forever, and I believe the audience will, too. I can see that your students gave us their real love."
That love is also evident through the service projects that form part of each tour. Students are afforded invaluable experiences when they visit the orphanages and hospitals that benefit from many of the concert proceeds.
What Oscar Murillo, who recently graduated, thought would be a leisurely way to end his college career became an unforgettable experience. As tour coordinator for the BYU-Idaho 2007 tour to Chile, he traveled with two jazz groups as an interpreter and was there during a hospital visit in Concepcion, Chile.
"I don't like hospitals," he said, "It's the worst place for me."
He entered the children's ward where some of the singers were giving an impromptu performance and saw a 2-year-old girl with a bruised face from a recent cleft pallet surgery.
"She was crying," said Oscar, "and my daughter was at that time 3 years old.... I started to think about my daughter and how grateful I am
that (she) has never been in a hospital by herself. This little girl was there by herself and she was crying. And so I was crying. I really felt the Spirit very strong." One of the singers stepped away from the group and comforted the little girl until she stopped crying.
Seeing this, Brother Murillo said, "I started thinking what Christ did for us. That hospital was full of people that needed the love and the Spirit that we had."
Teaching by example
As ambassadors for a Church-sponsored institution, students soon find their examples reflect much more on the Church than their words could.
Eleece Sherwood is a recent BYU-Idaho graduate who joined the tour as a trumpet player for the group Sound Alliance. Before they left, BYU-Idaho President Kim B. Clark held a fireside where he told these students that, because of their examples, the trip would be more of a mini-mission than just a tour of Chile.
Having served in the Spain Bilbao Mission, Eleece was one of the few students who spoke Spanish. After one of their concerts, she sat at a dinner table with the mayor of La Florida, a suburb in the Santiago province.
"We were just talking," she said. "Everything from the weather to what we believe in our Church." At the end of the night, she said the mayor, who had preconceived notions about the Church, teared up, saying, "You are so special. I had no idea that it was like this."
When perceptions of local officials and people of high-profile are changed through these quality performances, the local membership feels validated and are filled with greater dignity as those around them learn that Latter-day Saints are about more than just the meetinghouses and missionary companionships they see on the streets.
Then and Now
Hard work and sacrifice by many unsung heroes through years have made the quality of CES Performance Tours what it is today. Performers now count on lighting and sound technicians, choreographers and dance directors to make each performance shine, but when Janie Thompson made her first international trip to China, she said, "all I had was the kids and all they had was me — and the Lord."
The first excursion to Asia was not sponsored by BYU. Sister Thompson had enlisted a group of her students to perform for the United Service Organization performing for servicemen overseas. On those trips they were allowed one day off for every nine they performed.
"I had loftier ideas," said Sister Thompson. "What I wanted to do is open doors for missionaries." Not wanting to interfere with their commitment to the USO, Sister Thompson asked if the group could perform for members of her church in the area during their off time. She was answered that performers get a day off to avoid getting sick or tired and not be able to keep up with the schedule.
She said, "We didn't come here to go shopping or go sightseeing. All those things are nice but we want to perform. You don't work us hard enough." And so they began performing for Church members during their time off. They were even provided with a bus.
Church headquarters received numerous letters from grateful mission presidents for the work the performers were doing in their countries. It was these letters that in large part helped begin a Church-sponsored program where tours could be dedicated entirely to creating goodwill for the Church and its sponsored institutions.
Ed Blaser, director of the Performing Arts Management office at BYU, remembers the first time the Young Ambassadors traveled to China in 1979 officially representing BYU.
"They took the train from Hong Kong to Guangzhou," he said, "and before the Chinese government would let them get on the airplane, they wanted them to perform right there at the airport to make sure it was an appropriate style, a modest style that would be appropriate for the Chinese audiences."
Brother Blaser said since those days they've sent 24 tours back and now "BYU's the best-known American university in China because of the BYU performing groups."
When asked how a group of student performers without even a touring bus (those who requested shows by the Program Bureau had to provide transportation to and from BYU) could garner such a reputation and help performance tours become what they are today, Sister Thompson points to the Doctrine and Covenants where the Lord commands that "men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will" (58:26-28).
"It really fit us," she said. "We were certainly anxiously engaged. We did everything of our own free will. The kids learned to give real good service because they wanted to."
E-mail to: cmorales@desnews.com
