DENVER — In a concert like no other it has presented, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square performed in Denver Saturday evening to the largest indoor audience outside the state of Utah.

Some 15,000 people filled Denver's Pepsi Center to hear the choir for the first time in 20 years in the Denver area, the last time having been in 1984 when it performed at Red Rocks.

Saturday's concert was held as a benefit event for the National Sports Center for the Disabled, an adaptive sports and therapeutic recreation agency that helps children and adults with disabilities participate in 20 different sports and activities.

A highlight of the concert was video footage shown on the Pepsi Center's Jumbotron featuring children and adults with varying disabilities participating in sporting events, including skiing competitions, horseback riding, cycling, soccer, softball, river rafting and mountain climbing. The video was shown as the choir sang "Call of the Champions," composed by John Williams for the choir to perform at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City.

Choir announcer Lloyd K. Newell said the song begins with three words: faster, higher and stronger. "We perform this tonight in honor of all the athletes who are served by the National Sports Center for the Disabled," he said.

Among numerous special guests at the concert and at a VIP reception preceding it was Eric Weihenmayer, the first blind person to climb to the summit of Mount Everest.

Another highlight came near the end of the concert, when Newell acknowledged the presence of men and women from the U.S. military, many of them in uniform.

Newell also recognized David and Julie MacKenzie, whose son Tyler died in Iraq on Nov. 2 and was buried on Veterans Day. Both sets of his grandparents also were in attendance.

"In recognition of the great service of those who keep us free, and most particularly, for the service men and women who are here tonight, we dedicate the song which won a Grammy Award for the choir," Newell said in introducing the encore number, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."

Music featured in the concert reflected the choir's diverse repertoire, drawing from hymns, choral masterworks, folk music and songs of America and, for the first time to a live audience outside Utah, Christmas selections.

---

E-mail: gerry@desnews.com