This weekend students from BYU-Idaho get to sing in a choir at the bi-annual general conference for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
These students have been working hard since the beginning of the semester to prepare.
“We get an invitation from the Church about late December. Usually, we know we're going to be singing, we start finding repertoire and we create arrangements. Those arrangements get approved. The First Presidency looks at them and decides if we can sing what we want to sing. And then we begin preparing the students with the music about six weeks before conference,” said Randall Kempton, one of the choir directors at BYU-Idaho who has headed up the preparations for the choir.
Word began to spread last semester that the BYU-Idaho choirs would perform at April’s general conference. Only students in one of the choir classes were eligible to try out, so spots for the choirs were in high demand.
At the beginning of this semester, students in all of the audition-only choirs were evaluated and chosen to be part of the conference choir.
“There are 364 seats, and we're taking 364 plus some alternates to conference,” Kempton said.
For the last 6 weeks, the students chosen for the conference choir have been rehearsing the four numbers they will sing during the Saturday afternoon session of general conference.
Those songs are “All Hail to Jesus’ Name,” arranged by Dr. Eda Ashby, “Look Unto Christ,” arranged by Kempton, and “Press Forward Saints” and “Oh, That Rock of Our Salvation,” by Dr. Paul Busselberg.
Kempton has taken BYU-Idaho choirs to general conference several times over the 26 years he has taught at BYU-Idaho. He loves the process of preparing the music.
“Seeing the pieces come together and take shape and feeling like you have an influence on that experience, that's fun for us as conductors. There's moments in the arranging process when we're writing an arrangement when we'll feel like heaven's hand reaches down and sort of guides the pen in a way and sort of tells us what to write. I had the experience again this time with this conference, with the arrangement that I did. I could see heaven's hand saying this is the way I want this piece to sound,” Kempton said.
Kempton said one of his favorite moments when the BYU-Idaho students sing in conference is when they walk into the Conference Center in Salt Lake City and get to sit down in the choir loft.
“We love it when President Meredith will come up to the choir loft before, sometimes after as well. And Elder Bednar, who was president of BYU-Idaho as well, will come up beforehand and just give us words of encouragement and just kind of a go team. And they love that when our leaders come and give us encouragement,” Kempton said.
Another special moment is the bus trip back to Rexburg once the students sing.
They will leave that morning for Salt Lake City at 6 a.m. and so the drive there is quiet while everyone sleeps.
On the drive back though, energies are high. Kempton said the students sing together and often bear their testimonies while on the bus.
BYU-Idaho Radio will broadcast all four sessions of general conference on KBYI 94.3 FM and KBYR 91.5/90.9 FM, at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday, April 4 and Sunday, April 5.