Brigham Young University’s School of Music will present a combined choir devotional featuring secular and spiritual music about pilgrimages, “A Pilgrim’s Journey Home,” Tuesday, April 7, at 11:05 a.m. in the Marriott Center.
The devotional will be broadcast live on the BYU Broadcasting channels. For rebroadcast information, visit byubroadcasting.org.
At Tuesday’s devotional, the BYU Singers, Concert Choir, Men’s Chorus and Women’s Chorus will perform excerpts from a concert that will be filmed for a television production. This is the first film production that the School of Music has done in 10 years. The previous three music videos were nationally broadcast.
Each choir will sing one piece, and then all 500 voices will join to perform an arrangement of “Lead, Kindly Light” by Mack Wilberg.
The pieces that will be performed are all based on the theme of pilgrimage.
“When we decided that we were going to do a new video presentation we wanted a theme that would encompass many different avenues,” said Rosalind Hall, director of Men’s Chorus and Concert Choir. “At first we started doing songs that were all related to home, and it developed into a broader vision as we considered the many aspects of the word pilgrimage and our journey through life.”
BYU Singers will perform “Saints Bound for Heaven,” arranged by Howard Helvey. Concert Choir will sing “Ain’t that News,” arranged by Stephen Hatfield. Together, BYU Singers and Concert Choir will present “Wither Goest Thou Pilgrim Stranger,” arranged by Ronald Staheli, director of BYU Singers.
“The pieces we perform about pilgrimages reflect our desire to find Zion,” said Logan Bradford, a Tenor in Concert Choir. “Zion is not a far-off fantasy land, but rather a state of mind, a way of living the gospel and an attitude.”
Women’s Chorus will present a setting of Psalm 23 “The Lord is my Shepherd,” by Randall Stroop. Men’s Chorus will perform an arrangement by BYU alumus Daniel Mcdavitt, “My Little Mountain Home.” Together, Men’s and Women’s Choruses will sing a piece arranged especially for the television production by David Zabriskie. The piece is a combination of two war songs — “Jonny Comes Marching Home” and “Keep the Home Fires Burning.”
“Pilgrimage is very applicable to my life as a student, because school can sometimes seem like a difficult, never-ending journey,” said Lara Mann from Women’s Chorus. “One piece that we are singing mentions a hand that reaches out to help us. We can’t make it alone, but we can lift and help each other on this pilgrimage through life.”
The national broadcast taping of “A Pilgrim’s Journey Home” will be Friday and Saturday, April 10-11, at 7:30 p.m. in the de Jong Concert Hall, Harris Fine Arts Center. Tickets are $11, or $8 with BYU or student ID, and can be purchased online at www.byuarts.com, by phone at (801) 422-4322 or in person at the Harris Fine Arts Center Ticket Office. Since the concert is a broadcast taping, no latecomers will be seated.
For more information, contact Nathan Wright at (801) 422-5616.
Writer: Angela Fischer
