Mormon Choir of Washington

(pictures are from only the summer concerts as I never did get my camera out at the others. I will be better at getting pictures next time)

One of the fun things that I get to do for myself is sing with the Mormon Choir of Washington. No, no we're by no means the Tabernacle Choir, but we're good. We moved here 1 year ago today. I can't believe it's been a year in VA. I SO MISS my MOM but I get to see her in a few weeks!!

Ok back to my post. We've been here a year and our first Sunday here was a concert at the Visitor Center at the DC Temple. The Mormon Choir of Washington was doing there last summer concert with Sandra Turley as a guest Soloist. I had found out that the ward we moved into had 3 singers that were in the choir. I new our ward was good!

It was a great concert. I as so impressed and then the Ladies in the ward mentioned they would be doing auditions for the choir in September so I waited until then and tried out! I was so nervous and I'm pretty sure they put in on faith cause my audition didn't do me justice. I'm not a soloist by any means. Anyway I made it and started singing with them. We practice every Thursday night for 2 hours. and the drive there is about 45 min each way! So it is quite the time commitment. But I love it.

Our year was pretty impressive with all the concerts and things we did. WE did a few Why I believe Firesides in September and then October and then we started on Christmas.

We did a big concert for Christmas with the Mormon Orchestra at the Strathmore Music Center in Maryland. It was a very nice concert hall. My favorite of the Christmas music was A Christmas Festival and O Holy Night. Besides that concert we did the two lighting ceremonies at the Temple Visitor Center. The first night is invited guests only of Senators, Representatives and Selected Ambassadors. We had his Excellency Le Cong Phung from Vietnam there for the first night then the next night is also invited guests only of more ambassadors and city officials. There Elder Marriott spoke. I think they said he's been in charge of the lighting for close to 30 + years.

We had a little break for Christmas but were Right back in there starting on our Black History Month music. It took me awhile to get into the mood for this music but it sure got into me. We had two concerts for this music and probably my favorite concert of all the year was combined with the Alfred Street Baptist Church Senior Choir. They're choir was so full of SOUL It was kind of hard to combine but after a few lines of the songs we sang together it was so much fun! We sang songs like Witness, The Battle of Jericho, and I want Jesus to Walk with Me. My favorite was a song that the Baptist Choir sent us. Done Made My Vow to the Lord. It was so fun and amazing. I hope that next year we do something more with that choir.

The second night we sang with Tab Choir soloist Alex Boye' for a why I believe Fireside. He has an amazing story and has one of the I am a Mormon Videos.

Then we worked on Easter. It was such a nice change from the fun, exciting music of the south, to start singing music to our Lord. This was such a beautiful time of year and we sang beautiful music. One of my favorites was Hear us, O Lord and Beauty for Ashes. We sang a Bach that was really hard but I believe it turned out beautifully. Christ Gave Himself a Sacrifice. And then that we sang for the rest of the summer that is such a beautiful piece was The King of Love my Shepherd Is. I loved the Easter Concerts. The spirit was so strong and I definitely felt the Love of my Savior as we sang of his Death and Resurrection.

After the Easter Concerts we started with some fun and Patriotic music like the Battle Hymn and Away to America. We did Four different Genres for our summer concerts. patriotic, music for the Stage, Religious and Popular. We had Sandra Turley come again for this summer concert. She as been Cosette is Les Miserables for years and has toured with that company across the world. for the Stage music we sang You'll Never Walk Alone and a Medley from Les Miserables. Sandra sang Popular and One Short Day from Wicked. Matthew joined the choir for the Summer concerts and was in the back up singers for One Short Day. He had a solo saying at the end. "THE WIZARD WILL SEE YOU NOW" He was perfect. Then for religious we sang For the Beauty of the Earth and God So Loved the World. Then the Popular section the men did a medley from HMS Pinafore, then we did Edelweiss and the girls did Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy and we ended with Brothers and Sisters. Such a fun concert with lots of songs and soloists.

I'm excited for the next coming year! Our first concert of the season is on September 11 at the Temple Visitor Center to help honor the 10 years it's been since that dreadful day in New York. It should be an amazing concert! If your in the area for sure make that a priority!

I do have to mention that it was nice to have Matthew with me for the summer but being in the Choir is MY TIME. I'm not sharing it with him for the next year!