Sterling and I joined the East Valley Mormon choral organization with julliard trained director- Brandon Stewart. It is a stellar choir with intense rehearsals and grand concerts. If you don't know much about the best choral sounds, vowel modification is paramount. The choirs at BYU really focus on this and the result is a rich uniform sound that has gained national recognition in the choral world. I sang under Dr. Ralph Woodward in the BYU A Cappella choir and enjoyed this rigorous training as well as with the then new director, Dr. Ronald Staheli, who now conducts the BYU Singers- now the top BYU choir.
My friends in that choir are mostly now all singing in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and it is fun to see them each week on "Music and the Spoken Word" from the 'crossroads of the west'!
With our goals, training and repertoire I can promise that this choir will be doing some amazing things here in the East Valley of Phoenix and beyond! BTW- Brandon Stewart, our director is currently pursuing his Doctoral studies in Piano Performance at Arizona State University.
The week in SLC was amazing! Over 700 singers and instrumentalists from Orange Cty, CA and Mesa/Gilbert, AZ all arrived and recorded in Abravanel Hall until we reached musical perfection :D Well, almost. Then we performed in both the Tabernacle and Abravanel Symphony Hall. The Stewart Brothers, Brett and Brandon, pictured below, had the vision to make this week happen and they worked hard to bring it to fruition. The Elder Brother, Brett composed a new oratorio, "Messiah in America" that we had performed in our separate venues previously and then came together in Salt Lake. What a thrill to sit in the Tab choir seats and sing this inspired music with my dear choir friends. If you are a music person, you know that it just doesn't get much better than that! The CD comes out in Sept.
