BYU-Idaho musicians will perform the new oratorio “That They Might Have Joy” this weekend at BYU-Idaho, the final stop of their tour of the Sacred Music Series.
The Sacred Music Concert Series started back in the late 1980s with Dr. Kevin Call who was initially charged by President Spencer W. Kimball to engage in the arts as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The title or theme for this concert series is centered around the scripture verse Nephi 2:25 which says, “Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.” BYU-Idaho commissioned Dr. Ethan Wickman to write the oratorio. The concert takes listeners on a journey through death and resurrection in four movements.
In a BYU-Idaho Radio interview, Dr. Robert Tueller, the director of the BYU-Idaho Symphony Orchestra, said it was a unique experience when the orchestra and choir came together before the first show of the tour.
“We've been separate until last Thursday night,” Dr. Tueller said. “Where in the course of a two-and-a-half-hour rehearsal, we put it all together for the first time.”
Tueller said they performed the next day at Utah State University, then also performed at Temple Square in Salt Lake City.
“It's overwhelming. It really is. In fact, I have to kind of check myself sometimes because I must be in the job,” Tueller said. “But there are moments that I just love and look forward to in the music and powerful, moments.”
Choir members Curtis McMicheal and Xander Robison said performing in the Sacred Music Concert Series allowed them to have insights of the work behind the music.
“It helps you feel closer, from the words that you sing to just the fact that you're all together rejoicing in something that you have in common,” McMicheal said.
Robinson said, “This program, especially the sacred music series, brings to focus the light of the plan of salvation and the fact that those that are past or those that are gone are not gone, and that there are with us in helping us feel the savior's love.”
The BYU-Idaho musicians will perform “That They Might Have Joy” in three shows in the Barrus Concert Hall inside the Eliza R. Snow Building, Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday at 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at the ticket office in the University Book Store inside the Manwaring Center or by visiting www.byui.edu/ticket-office/.