Saturday, June 20, 2009

The Concert

Most of our concerts are held in large arenas to accommodate large audiences of 7-10 thousand. In St. Louis we perform in the Scottrade Center built originally for the St. Louis Blues hockey team.
Our concert clothing is transported by truck to each venue and we dress there just prior to each concert. You can only imagine how very challenging this is with 450 other musicians trying to do the same thing.  We instrumentalists then race to the stage before the choir lines up to enter 15 minutes prior to each concert.
Our program consists of 22 numbers in a variety of styles.
  • Hymns of Praise
  • Music of the Masters
  • Music of the World
  • Two American Folk Hymns
  • Intermission
  • Songs of the Land
  • Songs of Faith and Hope
  • Songs of Inspiration from the American Theater
  • Music and the Spoken Word
    Alex Boye delights the audience with his whole heart and soul singing of "I Want Jesus to Walk with Me."
Organist Richard Elliot's rendition of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" brings cheers and applause in the middle of his unbelievable foot work. I have never before thought of organ playing as an athletic event, but Rick is amazing to put it mildly.
The encore number "This Land is Your Land" is often conducted by a local celebrity. Tonight it was John Ashcroft, former U.S. Attorney General.

“I thought it was so beautiful and lovely. Why don’t we do this every day? To go from normal life and have this Choir come on stage, out of nowhere, this sound and this spirit is what the whole world needs every day. Thank you so much.” 
June Sommer

After each concert we are very appreciative of the ice cold water waiting for us as we re-board the buses back to our hotel.


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