(Read Gerry Avant's blog as she accompanies the Choir on their 2009 tour.)
DENVER, COLO.
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s summer concert tour came to a spectacular conclusion Monday evening, June 29.
The Red Rocks Amphitheater’s setting near Denver was stunning, the audience enthusiastic. The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square looked and sounded in top form. No one could tell that they had performed six concerts in the previous 11 days on the road.
President Thomas S. Monson’s surprise appearance in the audience was just the crowning touch to end the tour on a high note.
Before the choir and orchestra members left on tour June 18, he met with them the previous Sunday, June 14, and hinted that he just might show up at one of their concerts.
At a VIP reception before the concert, President Monson spoke of the loyalty, commitment and dedication of members of the Tabernacle Choir.
He asked a blessing on the choir that each might perform to the best of his ability, that it may be a treasured experience for all who performed and all who listened. He told those gathered at the reception that he hoped the concert would be “the kind of experience where you write it down in your journal, the kind where you tell it to your children who weren’t here. Maybe you have a record, disk or tape of some of the numbers. Play them in your home that those who are not here will have an opportunity to hear them. Whistle or sing along with them. In other words, don’t let it stop here, but continue it right on through the generations that come.
“I think ‘fabulous’ is the adjective that best describes what I’ve read about this tour so far,” he said. “I know our hearts are filled with gratitude for the performers, and their families are looking forward to seeing them.”
He said he was looking forward to the tour’s finale, in which memories are crowded into one. I think everyone brings forth his best tone and spirit in a finale. That’s what we’re going to see tonight. Add to the word ‘fabulous’ the word ‘fantastic.’
“We’re going to hear the best tonight. . . . We will hear real artists perform. More than that, we’ll hear men and women who say their prayers, men and women who serve in their church, men and women who sacrifice to spare a wife or husband to come to the practices, to come to the venues.”
President Monson had a message for members of the Tabernacle Choir organization, which includes the Orchestra at Temple Square: “It’s one thing to sing every Sunday morning and practice every Thursday evening. But remember the lives you’ve touched, the testimonies you’ve expressed through song, the experience you’ve had with wonderful men and women who serve and serve and serve.
“Service is your motto, loyalty is your creed. I invoke the blessing of a loving Heavenly Father to look down with favor upon all who perform tonight that it may be to the best of your ability and leave in each heart and mind a feeling, ‘I will serve the Lord. I will honor those who have sung to me tonight, those who have performed and the preparation they’ve made, and if they can do that then I can do my part in any assignment that I might be called.’ ”
As he entered the amphitheater, President Monson stood a few moments facing the choir and orchestra. To their delight, he raised his arms, as if preparing to conduct them in a musical number. He smiled, waved to them and wished them well in their performance.
During the intermission, dozens of children crowded around President Monson to shake his hand.
President Monson told the Church News that the concert was “absolutely fantastic. The choir is an example of devotion to one's assignment and a manifestation of the absolute beauty of music. There's an old saying, 'Practice makes perfect.' We see an example of that tonight."
Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter guest-conducted the choir and orchestra in an encore number, "This Land is Your Land."
The concert was also attended by Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal.
The choir, orchestra and guests — a group totaling 569 — returned to Salt Lake City on Tuesday, June 30. Other concerts on the tour were performed in Cincinnati, Ohio; St. Louis, Mo.; Des Moines, Iowa; Omaha, Neb.; Kansas City, Mo. and Norman, Okla. Reports covering the first portion of the tour were published in the June 27 Church News. Other reports are in this issue, and more articles will be published later.
