Gospel Singers Join Tabernacle Choir in Program

A different style of musical worship filled the Tabernacle on Temple Square in Salt Lake City on August 11 as thousands of gospel singers joined with the Tabernacle Choir.

First, the Tabernacle Choir and the Thurston Frazier Memorial Chorale sang together in the weekly Sunday broadcast of “Music and the Spoken Word.” Under the baton of chorale director Frank Williams, the two choirs sang “Alleluia,” by Randall Thompson, and the Houston Bright spiritual “I Hear a Voice A-Prayin.’”

After the broadcast, the Tabernacle Choir stayed for an Interfaith Consecration Service. A first-of-its-kind meeting in the Tabernacle, the service was for those attending the twenty-fourth annual convention of the Gospel Music Workshop of America (GMWA).

“Come, Come, Ye Saints” was a favorite hymn of the late Dr. James Cleveland, founder of the GMWA, who took the message “All is well” wherever he traveled, said Dr. Kenneth Ulmer, GMWA second vice president. He paid tribute to the Tabernacle Choir, calling it “precision musical machine and ministry.”

Responding, choir president Wendell M. Smoot said, “Like you, we embrace all that music which is uplifting and praiseworthy and that can exalt and inspire mankind to live Christlike lives and ideals.”