Rob Gardner was serving his mission in Bordeaux, France, when his mission president found out he composed music. He asked Gardner to write something they could perform at Christmas time.
Gardner composed "He Is Jesus Christ," a sacred oratorio for choir, orchestra and soloists. This piece encompasses the entire life of Jesus Christ from his birth to the Atonement, his Resurrection and his visit to the Americas.
Gardner said, "It was a different way to share the gospel than knocking on doors; I felt like it would be something that would be very beneficial to the work."
After his mission, he translated it into English and performed it at BYU and many other places. Audiences really responded to the beautiful emotion and musicality.
Since his mission, Gardner has composed four stage musicals and three sacred works including "Joseph Smith the Prophet." Ever since he composed "He Is Jesus Christ," Gardner has had a strong desire to write a work that zeroed in on the final days of Christ's life.
"I felt like I didn't have a lot of time to spend on the Atonement and the central reason for (Christ's) mission. I always wanted to come back to that and just focus on the Atonement and Resurrection. ... Last spring when I was studying in L.A., I thought, 'I need to work on this.' I felt like it was time, and thought I'd never feel fully prepared to write a work like that, so better to do it now than to never do it."
"Lamb of God," his new sacred musical presentation, is fused with hope. Gardner wants everyone who hears it to leave with a renewed sense of hope.
"It just seems like in the last couple years especially, world events have stripped people of a lot of hope that seemed to exist before, and people seem to be kind of desperate right now. In the last couple years, I saw a few different things about Christ and his final week — and whenever I watched those things I felt like it was always portrayed without any hope, that it was a dark horrible thing," he said.
"I just wanted to be able to tell the world that even in the darkest moments there's always hope. That hope comes through the Atonement and through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. ... It can be kind of gruesome and dark when you share the last week of Christ's life, and I wanted to do a work about that yet fuse every moment, no matter how dark, with hope.
"There is hope in every piece of the Savior's life," Gardner said.
The Savior is the source of all hope. Gardner's powerful new musical presentation seeks to remind everyone of the genuine hope that comes through Christ's atonement and resurrection.
Gardner recorded this new album with one of the top orchestras in the world, the London Symphony Orchestra.
The album is available at www.spiremusic.org. "Lamb of God" will premiere Sept. 10 and 11 at the ASU Gammage Auditorium in Tempe, Ariz., with the magnificent East Valley Mormon Choir and Orchestra. For tickets, visit ticketmaster.com or call the box office at 480-965-3434.