It was not quite as epic as this, but Brent brought me to a Messiah sing-in tonight. I do enjoy that aspect of being in Utah. There are a plethora of community artistic events and gatherings. I've never had a hard time finding a Messiah sing-in around Christmas time that is amateur enough for us to enjoy belting out our well beloved Handel's tunes at the top of our poorly trained lungs.
And, our particular amateur version (in a local stake center that was so crowded I'm pretty sure that if the fire marshal showed up, some of us would've had to clear out) was led by Merill Jensen. I thought the name sounded familiar. He was a very gracious and enjoyable conductor. He even took us back a few pages and had us repeat the end of one of the songs that we did particularly badly at, and did it in such a nice way I was very grateful for the do-over opportunity.
Apparently he is quite famous in Mormon circles, and in fact I own some of his music, such as the sound track of "Legacy." He also wrote the music for "The Testaments," "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration," "Finding Faith in Christ," and several other well known LDS films. He has also done some productions with the Mormon Tabernacle choir.
I'm impressed that he came to lead a bunch of high school band students and amateur music lovers (and a few stellar soloists) in such a venture. We are lucky to have such good and talented people among us.
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