Soloist announced for Tabernacle Choir, Orchestra’s summer ‘Love Thy Neighbor’ concert, plus how to watch
The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square performs during a taping for the “Christmas With the Tabernacle Choir” television special at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City on Friday, Dec. 17, 2021.
|Credit: Spenser Heaps, Deseret News
Soloist announced for Tabernacle Choir, Orchestra’s summer ‘Love Thy Neighbor’ concert, plus how to watch
The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square performs during a taping for the “Christmas With the Tabernacle Choir” television special at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City on Friday, Dec. 17, 2021.
|Credit: Spenser Heaps, Deseret News
Baritone Shea Owens will be the featured soloist for The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square’s “Love Thy Neighbor” concert on Friday, July 15, and Saturday, July 16, at 8 p.m. on in the Conference Center on Temple Square.
The concert is “designed to bring needed comfort and hope, inspire kindness and concern, and encourage Christ-like outreach for everyone through its music and narration,” according to the Tabernacle Choir’s website.
The concert includes a short tribute to the Latter-day Saint pioneers and songs on the “Love Thy Neighbor” theme, such as “Fill the World with Love” from “Goodbye, Mr. Chips,” as well “Hold On” from “The Secret Garden” and “Thankful.”
“The world needs the comfort and peace the choir’s music brings,” choir president Michael Leavitt said. “The music and message of the concert will focus on the Savior’s second commandment to ‘love thy neighbor.’ We aspire to help those watching and listening to feel closer to God, experience His love, and feel prompted to share that love with others.”
Shea Owens, BYU’s new director of opera and assistant professor of classical voice, right, performs hymn at the BYU Annual University Conference in Provo on Monday, Aug. 23, 2021.
Credit: Shafkat Anowar, Deseret News
Owens, now the director of opera at Brigham Young University, was recently a member of the ensemble at Theater St. Gallen in Switzerland. His roles there included Belcore in L’elisir d’amore, Marcello in “La bohème,” Valentin in “Faust,” and Alvaro in Catán’s “Florencia en el Amazonas, among others.” He sang Colonel Ricci in Sondheim’s “Passion” at the Théâtre du Chátelet.
He recently sang his first performances of the title role of Mendelssohn’s “Elijah” with BYU’s choirs at the Cathedral of the Madeleine. He also returned this season to Utah Opera as Samuel in “The Pirates of Penzance.”
Read more: Song-filled summer for Tabernacle Choir includes ‘Love Thy Neighbor’ concert, call for auditions
How to watch
In person: Tickets are free, but required. Patrons may request up to four tickets and admission is open to those 8 years old and older. See churchofjesuschrist.org/events/love-thy-neighbor?lang=eng for tickets.
Due to limited downtown parking, a ticket to “Love Thy Neighbor” will allow concert goers to ride UTA services for free, including the bus, TRAX, the S-Line Streetcar and FrontRunner.
Online: The concert will be streamed on Saturday, July 16, at 8 p.m. MDT on the Choir’s YouTube channel at YouTube.com/TheTabernacleChoir, on the Choir’s website at TheTabernacleChoir.org and Broadcasts.ChurchofJesusChrist.org. It will be aired on BYUtv on Sunday, July 24, at 5:30 EDT/3:30 MDT and will also be available on BYUtv.org, the BYUtv app, and the KSL-TV app.
Languages: The program streamed on Saturday, July 16, will offer narration translations in French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish that audiences can find on the Church’s YouTube language pages.
