Thousands fill center, sing praises of choir

With a fond nod to the past and encouragement to climb to greater heights of achievement in the future, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir put on its finest face for the hometown crowd Saturday night, looking back on a storied history that includes the longest-running radio broadcast in history.

Celebrating the 75th anniversary of "Music and the Spoken Word," the 360-voice choir joined the Orchestra at Temple Square in a two-hour salute to past choir members, conductors, organists and technicians who have joined to make the choir one of the world's premiere musical groups. An evening thunderstorm downtown wreaked some mild temporary havoc with the lighting in the Conference Center during part of the performance, but the musicians simply carried on.

CBS broadcasting veteran Charles Osgood narrated the evening's performance, complete with video clips of some of the world's best-known musicians, actors and conductors adding their praise for and awe of a choir first inspired by early LDS Church President Brigham Young's admonition: "We can't preach the gospel unless we have good music." Choir members were to "sing the gospel into the hearts of the people," he told the Latter-day Saints gathered for their first meeting in the Salt Lake Tabernacle on April 6, 1867.

That foundation of faith is what sets the choir apart, according to President Gordon B. Hinckley, 94-year-old president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and an adviser to the choir for the past several decades. The capacity Conference Center crowd gave him its first and best standing ovation of the night as he approached the podium from the audience, waving his cane and smiling as many in the audience dabbed at tears.

He said the musical splendor the choir provides had its genesis with Emma Smith, wife of church founder Joseph Smith, who was asked by her husband to compile the church's first hymn book in 1830. That was followed by musical highlights in the history of the church, including the 1836 dedication of the Kirtland Temple and the singing of "The Spirit of God" and the anthem of the migration West, "Come, Come Ye Saints," he said.

President Hinckley recounted several highlights in the choir's history of performances, travel and events, in concert halls and before royalty in more than 60 nations. He noted the choir's first trip to a major performance venue was in 1893, when the group traveled to Chicago and sang at the World's Fair, where they were awarded second place and a $1,000 cash prize.