‘Spectacular’: Tabernacle Choir and the Morehouse and Spelman colleges’ glee clubs combine together as they sing, testify of Savior through music

ATLANTA, Georgia — More than 520 musicians joined together from The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, the Orchestra at Temple Square, the Morehouse Glee Club and the Spelman Glee Club and sang about peace, unity and testimonies of Jesus Christ in the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse College on Monday, Sept. 9.

It’s the same Atlanta, Georgia, chapel where the portrait of President Russell M. Nelson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hangs. He was honored in April 2023 as the inaugural laureate of the historically Black men’s liberal arts college’s Gandhi-King-Mandela Peace Prize. At that time, the choir recorded music to be sung at the ceremony and leaders from both organizations talked about a possible collaboration.

In October 2023, 30 members of each glee club came to Salt Lake City to sing with the choir and orchestra during “Music & the Spoken Word” weekly broadcast in the Salt Lake Tabernacle.

And now, the choir and orchestra are performing with 150 members of the glee clubs in Atlanta as part of the multicity, multiyear “Songs of Hope” tour stop in the southeastern U.S.

Sept. 9 was also President Nelson’s 100th birthday. Earlier in the day, many choir and orchestra members took pictures of his portrait hanging in the chapel — next to the portrait of Abraham Lincoln — and recorded happy birthday wishes.

The Rev. Lawrence Edward Carter Sr. — the founding dean of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel and who offered the opening prayer at the event — said that this was “more than I had envisioned.”

The risers for the choir and glee clubs nearly filled the space vertically, leaving space at the top for the trumpet pipes of the 6,000-pipe organ. The risers fit “neatly in our acoustical shell,” the Rev. Carter said.

The groups singing together help share “a picture of what is possible — the continuation on a larger scale of shattering stereotypes,” the Rev. Carter said.

Due to space on the stage, the glee club members waited in side seats and then switched places with choir members partway through the concert.

‘Songs of Hope’

The concert featured each group performing individually and then coming together for several numbers with notable organists from Morehouse and Spelman colleges. It included the debut of “Songs for the People,” with music by Kevin Phillip Johnson, the music director of Spelman College Glee Club, and arranged by Mack Wilberg, director of the Tabernacle Choir. Johnson and Wilberg played the four-hands piano parts while David Morrow, director of Morehouse College Glee Club, led the performers.

The audience frequently stood and applauded throughout the concert, with Martin Luther King III in attendance.

Thurl Bailey, former NBA star and greeter for the choir’s “Music & the Spoken Word” broadcast, welcomed the audience; singer Alex Melecio, one of the narrators for the Spanish “Music & the Spoken Word,” and Preston Darger, Jalyn de Moors and Landry Townsend — all three of Atlanta — narrated the event.

The “Songs of Hope” program was divided in several sections: the choir and orchestra performing sections titled “Songs of Praise,” “Three Alleluias,” “Songs of the World,” and “Hymns of Believers;” the glee clubs singing “Songs of Celebration,” and “Praise and Peace;” and all of the groups singing the “Songs of Hope.”

The choir and orchestra began the concert with “Songs of Praise,” the bells and strains of “Alleluia Fanfare” leading into the boisterous “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty” and the Irish folk song “With Joyful Voices Ringing,” all arranged by Wilberg.

Next were the three alleluias: “How Excellent Thy Name” and “Alleluia,” from “Saul” by George Frederic Handel; the peaceful, chant-like “Alleluia” attributed to Italian composer Giulio Caccini and arranged by Wilberg; and the soaring “Alleluia, from Psalm 150,” by Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera that has seemingly disjointed individual parts building before coming together to fill the space with music.

The songs of the world included the celebratory Sephardic wedding song “¡Ah, el novio no quere dinero!” from Spain in Ladino, which is a mixture of Hebrew, Yiddish and Spanish; “Gamelan,” designed to sound like an Indonesian orchestra with the choir rapidly singing series of “ding” and “dong”; and the hand-clapping, foot-stomping American folk song “Cindy.”

They performed the upbeat “Music Everywhere,” which was originally published in 1862, and with music by the choir’s associate director Ryan Murphy; and then the choir testified through music of Jesus Christ in Murphy’s arrangements of “In the Garden,” by C. Austin Miles, about the resurrected Savior; and “Standing on the Promises of God” by Russell Kelso Carter.

The Morehouse College Glee Club sang “Great and Glorious” by Franz Joseph Haydn and Morrow’s a cappella arrangement of the African American spiritual “Jacob’s Ladder.” The Spelman College Glee Club, celebrating a century of singing this year, performed the soaring “Wade in the Water” and “Children, Go Where I Send Thee,” both African American spirituals arranged by Johnson, and “A Choice to Change the World” with lyrics by Sarah Stephens and music by Johnson.

The choir and glee club members sang together the regal and awe-inspiring “Holy, Holy, Holy,” by John Dykes and Reginald Heber, and Wilberg’s arrangement of the jazzy “What a Wonderful World,” by Bob Thiele and George David Weiss — both songs they performed together last October.

David Oliver, the Morehouse College organist, played a solo of an improvisation on “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing.”

The program came to a crescendo to the “Songs of Hope,” with the Spelmann Glee Club women singing “Ella’s Song,” by Bernice Johnson Reagon, honoring Ella Baker, a former student with lyrics that included “we who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes.” And the Morehouse College Glee Club men sang a cappella the African American spiritual “I Ain’t Got Weary Yet.”

The groups combined for the debut “Songs for the People,” with lyrics by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, an abolitionist who also advocated for women’s rights. For the finale, Joyce Johnson — the former Spelman College chapel organist who taught at the women’s college for more than 50 years — joined the groups to perform “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing.”

With all singers on the stage, they performed an encore of “Battle Hymn of the Republic” and “God Be With You ‘Till We Meet Again.”

‘Spectacular’

Henry Goodgame, Morehouse College vice president of external relations and alumni engagement, said “It was absolutely the most heartwarming, spirit-filled experience of my lifetime.”

Goodgame, who sang in the glee club during his time as a student, said he grew up listening to the Tabernacle Choir. The choirs singing together “and actually happening while I’m here, where I can understand every word, every song, it warmed my spirit.”

Imam Plemon El-Amin, imam emeritu of Atlanta Masjid of Al-Islam, said, “The concert was spectacular. It was really wonderful.”

While he as a Muslim would have pronounced the alleluias from the opening numbers differently, “it means the same thing: praise to God.”

Rev. Carter said the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” is especially meaningful as Morehouse College is a site of Civil War battles.

Tabernacle Choir member Leslie Darcas was excited when the Morehouse and Spelman college glee clubs came to Salt Lake City last October, as she also attended a historically Black college.

“It’s a really great experience to be able to use our talents and our love of music to share testimonies of God and sing praises to Jesus Christ to do what we did back in October here again,” Darcas said prior to the concert.

About the ‘Songs of Hope’ world tour

The first concert of the southeastern U.S. tour stop was a bilingual Spanish/English concert in south Florida on Saturday, Sept. 7, with singers Adassa, known for her role as Dolores in “Encanto,” and Alex Melecio, one of the narrators for the Spanish “Music & the Spoken Word.”

The Morehouse and Spelman glee clubs will also be featured at the choir’s next concert at the State Farm Arena on Wednesday, Sept. 11, at 7 p.m.

The choir and orchestra will also perform in the Georgia state capitol building on Sept. 11 as part of a ceremony commemorating the anniversary of 9/11.

The concerts during the tour will be livestreamed on the choir’s YouTube channel, on broadcasts.ChurchofJesusChrist.org and on the Gospel Stream app, and the arena concerts will be available for on-demand viewing. (See www.choirworldtour.com for streaming information.) There are also watch parties across the southeastern U.S. to view the concerts live.

More photos from the concert, rehearsal

Church News’ coverage of the ‘Songs of Hope’ southeastern U.S. tour stops in Florida and Georgia

• Tabernacle Choir, Orchestra in Florida for first concert of southeastern U.S. ‘Songs of Hope’ tour stop
• Singer Adassa returns to southern Florida roots for Tabernacle Choir, Orchestra ‘Songs of Hope’ bilingual concert
• What the Morehouse and Spelman college glee clubs are saying about performing with the Tabernacle Choir in Georgia
• Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra perform at the Georgia State Capitol
• Kristin Chenoweth surprise guest artist at Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra’s final tour concert in Georgia
• How to watch the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra’s concerts in Florida and Georgia
• See photos of watch parties across southeastern U.S. for Tabernacle Choir, Orchestra’s ‘Songs of Hope’ concerts

Correction: An earlier version incorrectly spelled the last name of Leslie Darcas.