Saturday, June 27, 2009, we attended a performance of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir at The Lloyd Noble Arena on the campus of The University of Oklahoma.This photo, taken by Judy's iPhone, shows the choir and orchestra all on stage but prior to the start of their performance. Someone else forgot to charge his iPhone.
According to the free program the choir began in 1847 which is pretty impressive. Also impressive is the voice of the choir's announcer, Lloyd Newell. He's served since 1990. You can immediately tell why he is the announcer.
The organist was equally impressive and I do love organ music. Of course the organ was one they haul around with them and not the one located at the Temple in Salt Lake City. I heard that once when I was there although it was only some kind of rehearsal. It was still quite impressive.
The arena usually is used for basketball games among other things. It holds about 12,000 people but the area behind the stage was unavailable for use for obvious reasons. So I'm guessing that it was maybe 2/3 full which would be 8,000 people. The Sunday paper reported there were 8,500 in attendance so my estimate was pretty good. The paper also reported this was the largest group yet on the tour.
The last time the choir was in Oklahoma was in 1969 when they performed in Tulsa.
The choir has 360 members according to the literature but I think there were maybe 250 or so in Norman. The orchestra was easily 40 or more additional performers. Everyone is a "non-paid volunteer." (I thought non-paid was unncessary if you said volunteer but that's what they said.) They said that all together there were 570 people on 11 buses and a whole bunch of trucks and 3 airplanes.
From Norman they were all heading to Denver for the final performance of this tour which began in Cincinnati.
The arena is not exactly comfortable but it was okay I suppose. Probably that is more of a reflection on me than on the facility.
The parking lot was easy to get into but hard to leave. I've noticed a lot of things are that way.
It was after 11 sometime when we finally made it home and it took us a good 2 hours to wind down.
We had a wonderful time.
3 comments:
I'm so glad you got a chance to see this glorious choir. It you ever venture to NYC, you must go hear the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir. You would love them too.
Oh I'm so envious that you got to see and hear this choir. I can just imagine how exciting that was.
many years ago i was traveling west and stopped in salt lake city and visited the mormon tabernacle. we were fortunate in that the choir was practicing at the time. it was wonderful and something i will never forget.
Post a Comment