The Mormon Tabernacle Choir has announced a series of 10 concerts and broadcasts running from April to August, 2007, to celebrate the re-opening of the Salt Lake Tabernacle following extensive renovations.

The series will feature performances by the choir, Orchestra at Temple Square, Temple Square Chorale and Bells on Temple Square, as well as other guests, including the Utah Symphony and world-renowned baritone, Bryn Terfel.

"The Tabernacle is the home of the choir and we are delighted to be coming back home after so many months away," said Craig Jessop, music director of the choir and orchestra. "This Concert Series Gala will enable us to share with our community the wonderful renovation done to the Tabernacle through performances of all the organizations in our musical family plus our colleagues at the Utah Symphony and our dear friend, Bryn Terfel."

The Dedicatory Concerts, the first in the series, will be held on Friday, April 6, and Saturday, April 7, 2007, with performances by the choir and orchestra, under the direction of Brother Jessop and Mack Wilberg, associate director of the choir. The Easter (Sunday, April 8, 2007) broadcast of the choir's weekly program Music and the Spoken Word, the first from the renovated Tabernacle, will be ticketed as an event in the series as well.

Additional events in the series will include a Wednesday, April 18, performance by the Utah Symphony, which called the Tabernacle home for many years before the construction of Abravanel Hall. Conductor Keith Lockhart will lead the Symphony in a repertoire specially selected to showcase the venerable Tabernacle Organ, with senior Tabernacle organist John Longhurst as soloist.

Evening recitals by internationally known organists Dame Gillian Weir (Friday, April 20) and Ken Cowan (Saturday, April 21) — both part of the third American Classic Organ Symposium being staged by the Tabernacle organists — will also be featured events on the Concert Series Gala.

The Temple Square Chorale and Orchestra at Temple Square will perform Mozart's "Requiem" under the direction of Brother Wilberg on April 28 and 29. They will be joined on the second half of the program by the choir for the premiere of a new requiem written by Brother Wilberg for this gala concert. Soloists for the concert include Kiera Duffy, soprano, Stacey Rishoi, mezzo-soprano and Chad Shelton, tenor.

Keeping a promise he made when he sang with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir during its 2003 Christmas concerts, Bryn Terfel will return on May 11 and 12 to sing for the first time in the historic Tabernacle. He will sing the title role in Mendelssohn's "Elijah" with the choir and orchestra. Joining the performance will be Authalie Graham, soprano; Adriana Zabala, mezzo-soprano; and local favorite, Robert Breault, tenor. Mr. Terfel will also appear on the Sunday, May 13, broadcast of Music and the Spoken Word, which will be ticketed and held in the Conference Center.

The final events in the Concert Series Gala will be the inaugural Tabernacle concert of the Bells on Temple Square on May 18 and 19, and the series finale concert by the Orchestra at Temple Square on Aug. 10 and 11.

  • Tickets for the Concert Series Gala will be distributed on three separate dates:
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March 13: the Dedicatory Concerts, the Utah Symphony concert, the two organ recitals, Easter Music and the Spoken Word broadcast.

April 3: the Requiem concerts, the Elijah concerts; the May 13 Music and the Spoken Word broadcast; the Bells on Temple Square concerts.

July 10: the Orchestra at Temple Square concert.

For details, go to www.mormontabernaclechoir.org.

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