Bryn Terfel with the MoTabs

Bryn Terfel with the MoTabs on their first night of recording

Okay, you may call them the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, but for a long time now, I've just called them the MoTabs... well, since way back when it was Dick Condie and the MoTabs (which, believe me, is a really long time ago).

Now it's Mack Willberg and the MoTabs. (Time marches on.)  Mack is an amazing composer and arranger in addition to his duties as music director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  He is an incredible talent.

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Orchestra at Temple Square are currently recording an album with Bryn Terfel, the Welsh Baritone, for Deutsche Grammophon.  Now there's another amazing talent.

I love Bryn Terfel.

I thought you needed to know that.

Love love him.  He's a big teddy bear of a guy and he sings - oh does he sing - so wonderfully.  It just warms my heart to hear him.

They've turned the Tabernacle into a recording studio for the past week.  Funny thing about recording sessions in the old Tabernacle on Temple Square - it has nearly perfect acoustics, but when it's empty of people in the pews, with just the hard benches and columns, there is an echo effect.  They have to use blankets and duct tape to wrap columns and pews to help absorb the sound.

It's sort of a MacGyver kind of thing.

The blankets make a colorful site!

Here's a bit of trivia for you: Which recording artist in the USA has been recording longer than any other?

The answer may surprise you:  It's the Mormon Tabernacle Choir!  The choir has now been recording for 100 years!

I guess that's a bit of a trick question, though, since none of the actual members of the current choir have been around for that long.

I think.

Hmmmm.  Maybe I should check on that!  (Just kidding.)

Cases full of old blankets and quilts do the trick!

In addition to recording with the Choir, Mr. Terfel is also performing at the radio broadcast of 'Music and the Spoken Word" for Mother's Day with the choir.  (Here in the U.S., Mother's Day is this coming Sunday, May 12th, in case you forgot to mark your calendar.  If you live elsewhere, you're on your own.)

That seems like a really great Mother's Day gift to me!

Not too long ago, Bryn Terfel performed Mendelsohn's Elijah with the Choir

Happy Mother's Day!