“Pioneer Day Concert Set for Broadcast,” Ensign, July 2006, 75–76
Pioneer Day Concert Set for Broadcast
Thousands will gather in the Conference Center on July 21, 2006, for a Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra on Temple Square concert to celebrate the 159th anniversary of the first Latter-day Saint pioneer company to enter the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847, and the 150th anniversary of the first handcart companies to enter the valley.
“The choir and orchestra are honored to be invited by the First Presidency to help commemorate the great latter-day pioneers who laid the foundation for so much of what we cherish as members of the Church,” Mormon Tabernacle Choir music director Craig Jessop told the Church Magazines. “Our commemoration concert will be a celebration of the pioneer spirit not only of those who went before us but also of those who are pioneering in the Church today.”
One such pioneering family, the Brett Family Singers, has been invited to perform with the choir and orchestra at the concert. This Latter-day Saint family performs a daily morning variety show broadcast on PBS television from Branson, Missouri.
Three years have passed since the last Pioneer Day commemoration concert. In 2005 the choir and orchestra focused on celebrating President Gordon B. Hinckley’s 95th birthday, and in 2004, the 75th anniversary of Music and the Spoken Word.
Past Pioneer Day concerts have included music from the Nauvoo Illinois Temple dedication and hymns associated with pioneer heritage. The Pioneer Day concert this year is listed as an official event in Salt Lake City’s pioneer celebration, the Days of ’47.
The Pioneer Day commemorative concert will be broadcast over the Church satellite system at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, July 21, to meetinghouses worldwide, with subsequent rebroadcasts. Live audio, and later archived audio and video, versions will be available at www.lds.org/broadcast.
The Internet audio live and archived versions of the concert will be available in 17 languages (English, Cambodian, Cantonese, French, Haitian, Hmong, Korean, Laotian, Mandarin, Marshallese, Navajo, Polish, Portuguese, Samoan, Spanish, Tongan, and Vietnamese). The archived video version will be available in English, American Sign Language, and Spanish.
The concert will also be rebroadcast Sunday, July 23, over the Church satellite system to meetinghouses in the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean in 15 languages (English, Cambodian, Cantonese, French, Haitian, Hmong, Korean, Laotian, Mandarin, Navajo, Portuguese, Samoan, Spanish, Tongan, and Vietnamese).