General Conference

Yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity to sing in the Saturday Afternoon Session of General Conference. It was a regional choir made up of 8 stakes from around here, directed by the wonderful Michael Huff. He is a great director and so much fun to sing with!! It was very interesting to see a little bit of how a choir in conference works. For example, we had two extra songs prepared that we had to know and have memorized just in case they had extra time and wanted an extra song. Also, we were given only a certain amount of time and each song was timed and so they were haggling over seconds. If the song ran 20 seconds long it was ok, but 30 seconds and he was having to increase the tempo to make up some time. However, there happened to be some extra time at the end so Bro. Huff was able to drag out the closing song we sang as long as he wanted, and he did. =) They are also very strict on what people are wearing (down to your earring,) how they have their hair, no facial hair allowed on the men, etc. They want to make sure everyone just blends in (vanilla was the word they used,) and that there is uniformity so no one stands out.

We had 6 rehearsals plus a dress rehearsal in the conference center the Saturday before. We had to have all the music memorized. This is actually a good thing because an amateur choir would have a hard time responding to a director if they had music to be looking at. Yesterday, at 10 am, they put everyone on school buses at the Stake Center we practiced at and drove us the Conference Center. We went into the Conference Center Theater where we warmed up and practiced. They then fed us a snack and at 12:45 we went into the choir seating in the Conference Center. We did some tech run-thrus for the sound and camera people to make sure they had everything figured out.

I was sitting in the far right hand section of the choir seats (left from the audiences view point,) in the front row wearing a purple shirt. However there was a security guy sitting smack dab in front of me. (You know, you would hate for those crazy choir people to make a jump for it and head towards the brethren.) This means you don't get any close-up camera time. However it was interesting to chat with the security guy about how things work. He said the Saturday afternoon session is a heightened-security session because it is the sustaining of the brethren and they worry about people being there to protest. He also said the speakers all have there talks completely rehearsed and timed also and that they even film them in advance just in case. I couldn't see anything except the back row of the seventy who were in front of me. I couldn't even see the screen that was on the floor in front of me because the security guy was in my way. I did get a close up view of Elder Neil L. Anderson and Richard G. Scott because they came up where the choir was to tell us we did a good job. It was an amazing feeling to be providing the music for conference and the spirit was so strong while we were singing. I think we even managed to sound quite good. =) I'm so grateful I had this amazing opportunity. I guess there are some good things about living in UT. ;)


Warming up in the Conference Center Theater.


Doing sound checks before the session starts.


In this picture the music stand is cutting right across the middle of my face.


This picture is showing you the security guy right in my way.


A little bit closer up of me in the choir.


After Conference, talking with Connie Salgado, waiting to get on the buses to go back.