"Music is truly the universal language, and when it is excellently expressed how deeply it moves our souls." -President David O. McKay Paige was the lucky Knudsen that scored tickets to the "David Archuleta & the Mormon Tabernacle Choir" Concert in Salt Lake last Thursday night.
Since it was a free concert the church tried a lottery to distribute tickets fairly. But there were over a million email requests and only 3 performances at the Conference Center with a 21,000 seating capacity. So Paige truly was very lucky! Just one nice benefit of having great friends like Mike & Linda Dunn with connections!
Yesterday our Sacrament Meeting service was like a Christmas Concert of sorts and while we didn't have any American Idol stars or the MoTab, we still had our own star-studded cast of local ward celebrities! Our ward concert was also free, no ticket lottery needed (wouldn't Bishop Knudsen love to have that problem).
Seriously, I really enjoyed our home ward Christmas program. With Kate Finlayson's funeral I couldn't make the Salt Lake concert so I'm glad a didn't miss our Los Gatos Ward Christmas Program. There is something about music to bring the spirit and then something additionally special about Christmas music.
While Tom Lugaresi isn't quite Lloyd Newall, Tom was sporting a nice black tux to narrate the program. And Paige didn't think the ward choir rendition of "Joy to the World" was quite as powerful as David Archuleta's version. But David Archuleta had MoTab back up vocals and the ward choir had our congregation joining them. Major difference there. So we might be a little more scruffy than the professionals but music is still a great way to worship. Especially at Christmastime!
"When we rejoice in beautiful scenery, great art, and great music, it is but the flexing of instincts acquired in another place and another time." -Elder Neal A. Maxwell, Ensign, May 1984
