More than 600 performers will take the stage for the much-anticipated national broadcast taping of “A Pilgrim’s Journey Home” featuring the Brigham Young University combined audition choirs and Philharmonic Orchestra 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.
“A Pilgrim’s Journey Home” is the first television special produced by the combined choirs and Philharmonic since 1999, as well as the first to be filmed in high-definition, said Rosalind Hall, conductor of BYU Men’s Chorus and Concert Choir.
Past national television specials featuring the BYU performers have included “Celebration of Christmas” in 1990, “Thanksgiving of American Folk Hymns” in 1994 and “Songs of Praise and Remembrance” in 1999.
“Considering the impact and popularity the previous broadcasts had, I have no doubt there is a public out there waiting for this,” said Jean Applonie, conductor of BYU Women’s Chorus.
“Though the concert will be a dazzling production on a grand scale, if it remains just that, we have missed our goal,” said BYU Singers conductor Ronald Staheli. “We hope to speak to the individual, helping him see himself as a pilgrim on his own journey, helping him find purpose and sustaining power in the messages of the music.”
A CD release for “A Pilgrim’s Journey Home” is also planned.
Scott Eckern, who previously produced the Sacramento California Temple youth cultural celebration “More Precious than Gold” for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is the artistic director. Eckern was recipient of the 2007 Honored Alumnus Award from the BYU College of Fine Arts and Communications. Other production team members include producer Tyler Weston, set designer Rory Scanlon and lighting designer Dave Stoddard.
For more information, contact choral area assistant Nathan Wright at (801) 422-5616.
Writer: Brady Toone
