Atlanta Music category interest

ATLANTA, Georgia — There was one last surprise from The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square in the final “Songs of Hope” tour concerts in the southeastern U.S. on Wednesday, Sept. 11, in State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.

More than halfway through the concert, guest singer and actress Kristin Chenoweth surprisingly came out on stage and gave music director Mack Wilberg a hug. She was introduced as a Tony Award winner, “Broadway legend and beloved friend of the choir.”

Chenoweth was the guest artist during the choir and orchestra’s 2018 Christmas concert — and that “remains one of the best moments of my life,” she said.

The surprise of Chenoweth’s appearance was genuine as choir members were told of her participation in the concert in that afternoon’s rehearsal, and there wasn’t even a hint of a guest artist for this concert prior to the performance — even until she was announced to come on stage.

The Morehouse College Glee Club and Spelman Colleges Glee Club also sang with the choir and orchestra Wednesday, two days after the groups’ concert in the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel on the Morehouse College campus on Monday, Sept. 9.

The 310-voice choir and 69-member orchestra performed in a bilingual concert in southern Florida with singers Adassa and Alex Melecio on Saturday, Sept. 7, and in Georgia at Morehouse College on Monday, and at the Georgia State Capitol during a 9/11 remembrance earlier in the day Wednesday during this stop of the multicity, multiyear “Songs of Hope” tour.

Wednesday’s concert to more than 5,000 people in the arena where the Atlanta Hawks play was also livestreamed to watch parties throughout the southeastern U.S.

Remembering 9/11 and finding ‘Angels Among Us’

Twenty-three years ago, on Sept. 11, 2001 — the day terrorists hijacked planes and crashed them into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, into the Pentagon and in a field in Pennsylvania — the choir had planned a private concert in the Salt Lake Tabernacle for a business convention.

It quickly became a public memorial service, as then-Church President Gordon B. Hinckley spoke and the choir sang several patriotic songs. Days later, the choir performed at two memorial services conducted by the First Presidency in the Tabernacle in observance of a National Day of Prayer and Remembrance in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Since then, the choir has been part of several 9/11 anniversary concerts, singing patriotic songs and music of healing and also sharing a 20th anniversary special titled “Coming Together.”

At Wednesday’s concert, Chenoweth sang “Angels Among Us” as a tribute to the victims of 9/11 and also as a thank you to all those who have served as first responders and in the military and who are unsung heroes who help in their communities and families.

Chenoweth, who lives in New York City where hijacked planes crashed into the Twin Towers, said, “I will never forget what I saw. It stays with me forever.”

She also recalled that “hearts softened, parents called their kids, kids came home, friends reached out. Enemies made peace. We started watching out for each other.”

Chenoweth told the audience she loves this choir and orchestra — “that’s not news,” she quipped — in part, because she grew up singing in her church’s choir.

It was singing in church where Chenoweth said she “learned about the songs of hope and hymns of praise.” The soprano’s voice soared through the arena during singer Sandi Patty’s arrangement of “How Great Thou Art.”

Patty “would be the first to remind us Jesus is our hope. As the hymn says, ‘He bled and died to take away [our sins].’ When I think on that and remember the hope of Easter morning, ‘then sings my soul, ... how great thou art.’”

After the concert Chenoweth said, “I can’t believe it’s the 23rd anniversary of 9/11. Feels like both yesterday and forever ago. One of the most healing things we can do is listen to music. I’m blessed to have spent this 9/11 with the choir. I left the concert lifted onto heaven! So happy! I hope the families and victims of 9/11 will watch the concert and feel not forgotten, but loved even more. "

Singing ‘Songs of Hope’

Elder Ahmad S. Corbitt, General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and first counselor in the Church’s North America Southeast Area, welcomed the audience in the 15,000-seat arena, which included the Rev. Amos C. Brown of the Third Baptist Church of San Francisco, California, and Mel Hamilton, one of the Wyoming football players known as the Black 14.

Singer Alex Melecio, one of the narrators for the Spanish “Music andamp; the Spoken Word,” joined Preston Darger, Jalyn de Moors and Landry Townsend — all three of Atlanta — in narrating the event.

The “Songs of Hope” program as the musical missionaries of the choir and orchestra shared their talents and testimonies was divided in several sections: the choir and orchestra performing sections titled “Songs of Praise,” “Three Alleluias,” “Songs of the World,” and “Hymns of Believers;” the glee clubs singing “Songs of Celebration, Praise and Peace;” and all of the groups singing the “Songs of Hope.”

The choir and orchestra began the concert with “Songs of Praise,” the bells and strains of “Alleluia Fanfare” leading into the boisterous “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty” and the Irish folk song “With Joyful Voices Ringing,” all arranged by Wilberg.

Next were the three alleluias: “How Excellent Thy Name” and “Alleluia,” from “Saul” by George Frederic Handel; the peaceful, chant-like “Alleluia” attributed to Italian composer Giulio Caccini and arranged by Wilberg; and the soaring “Alleluia, from Psalm 150,” by Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera that has seemingly disjointed individual parts building before coming together to fill the space with music.

The songs of the world included the celebratory Sephardic wedding song “¡Ah, el novio no quere dinero!” from Spain in Ladino, which is a mixture of Hebrew, Yiddish and Spanish; “Gamelan,” designed to sound like an Indonesian orchestra with the choir rapidly singing series of “ding” and “dong”; and the hand-clapping, foot-stomping American folk song “Cindy.”

They performed the upbeat “Music Everywhere,” which was originally published in 1862, and with music by the choir’s associate director Ryan Murphy; and then the choir testified through music of Jesus Christ in Murphy’s arrangements of “In the Garden,” by C. Austin Miles, about the resurrected Savior; and “Standing on the Promises of God” by Russell Kelso Carter.

The men of the Morehouse College Glee Club sang “Great and Glorious” by Franz Joseph Haydn and the African American spiritual “I Ain’t Got Weary Yet,” under director David Morrow, highlighting their range and precision.

The women of the Spelman College Glee Club, celebrating a century of singing this year, performed the soaring “Wade in the Water” and hand-clapping and energetic “Children, Go Where I Send Thee,” both African American spirituals arranged by director Kevin Phillip Johnson, and the enthusiastic “A Choice to Change the World” with lyrics by Sarah Stephens and music by Johnson, as the group’s voices filled the arena.

The audience responded to both groups with standing ovations. Chenoweth also added her praise: “The gentlemen of Morehouse and ladies of Spelman just blew my mind.”

After her solos, all three came together to sing “Songs for the People” and the stirring “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.”

“Songs for the People” was written for this tour stop by Johnson using the lyrics by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, an abolitionist who also advocated for women’s rights, and it was arranged for choir and orchestra by Wilberg, including a piano duet. Johnson and Wilberg played the four-hands piano parts, while Morrow led the performers.

All joined to sing the encores of “Battle Hymn of the Republic” and “Georgia on My Mind” — which the audience audibly appreciated — while the choir concluded with its farewell song of “God Be With You Till We Meet Again.”

Carrie Skahan of Fortson, Georgia, traveled an hour and a half with a group of six people, including family and friends, to come to Wednesday’s concert. While she’s seen the choir’s show on television and heard the music, she didn’t want to miss seeing them live.

“You can feel energy in the room” in a live performance, she said. “You know how lucky you are to have the opportunity to see it.”

She was surprised by Chenoweth’s appearance and appreciated her sharing about her faith.

Patricia Manga, who lives about 45 minutes away, said, “It was amazing.”

It was her first time hearing the choir in-person, as she’s previously heard them sing in general conference. She also felt the Spirit as the choirs performed.

“It was unifying,” she said of all of the choirs coming together.

About the ‘Songs of Hope’ world tour

These performances are part of the choir and orchestra’s multiyear “Hope” tour that started in Mexico in June 2023 and continued in the Philippines in February 2024.

In June 2023, the choir and orchestra’s first stop was in Mexico, where the choir and orchestra performed at the Toluca Cathedral and two “Esperanza” concerts in Mexico City’s National Auditorium, which seats about 10,000 people. The two concerts in the National Auditorium featured guest artist singers Adassa and Melecio and radio host Mariano Osorio and shared messages and songs of hope.

The Philippines was the second stop on the “Hope” tour, in February 2024, with a sacred music concert and two concerts in the SM Mall of Asia Arena. It featured singers Lea Salonga and Ysabella Cuevas and hosts Suzi Entrata-Abrera and Paolo Abrera.

The latest tour is the choir’s most recent performance in the Southeastern U.S. in more than two decades. The choir traveled to Alabama and Georgia in 2001 as part of the Southern States Tour to Houston and Fort Worth, Texas; New Orleans, Louisiana; Birmingham, Alabama; Atlanta, Georgia; and Tampa, Orlando and Miami, Florida.

Lydia Tarbox, who sings second alto in the choir, is one of few in the choir and orchestra who were on the previous tour. She was in the choir from 1999 to 2002 and then re-auditioned and has been in the choir since 2018. The 2001 tour was her first choir tour.

She remembers the tour being busy with going from city to city. In Atlanta, she remembers singing in the historic Fox Theater. “It was this beautiful, classic theater.”

It was one of the first tours they brought a small group of orchestra members, as the Orchestra at Temple Square was created a couple years earlier.

“Everywhere you go, there’s something to look forward to,” Tarbox said earlier in the tour of the different concerts on tour. “The program changes just slightly everywhere we go to cater to those people. I love that about it.”

Previously, the choir and orchestra’s tours or travel assignments have been every few years with stops in many countries in a single trip and appearing mostly at small concert halls. Now, the choir and orchestra are traveling twice a year for shorter times and performing in larger venues.

The three evening concerts during the tour were livestreamed on the choir’s YouTube channel, on broadcasts.ChurchofJesusChrist.org and on the Gospel Stream app, and are available for on-demand viewing. See www.choirworldtour.com for streaming information.

Church News’ coverage of the ‘Songs of Hope’ southeastern U.S. tour stops in Florida and Georgia