This passage of scripture seems to speak to me this past week. It was a week of beginnings and ends. Beginnings for those who patiently have gone through the Choir School (the Mormon Tabernacle Choir training school) who wait patiently to take their places in the choir loft. Those that have learned the essentials of good singing practices and who have tackled the difficult Mozart Requiem.

As any prospective member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, they all have to go through this process. The intensive 16 week training with lovingly wonderful choir school staff who only want to bring out the absolute best for all of the applicants. The culmination is the Chorale Concert, which happened this past Friday and Saturday. As one who has now gone through with the decision to sing with the Chorale, even though my commitment is over, I can empathize. I see myself in a little of them. I see the excitement, humility, and hard work that they show. It is a joy to now be sort of a mentor - to be looked as a "seasoned" professional. To be asked about protocol and what to expect. I don't have all the answers, but provide what I have learned. And that's not all - I learn from them. I am invigorated by they zest and zeal. I love being a part of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

I can remember my first experience in the Chorale, and those more "seasoned" members who also returned year after year, because they loved the experience of doing so. And I remember their kindness, their helpfulness and their joy. We sung a brand new piece as part of the Chorale. It was a year after the tragic Sandy Hook incident. It was the same school that our Associate Director, Ryan Murphy attended as a youth. He wrote a piece in honor of that event called "A Lullaby". We sang it as part of our choir school. It was a special feeling of gratitude for Bro. Murphy allowing us to sing his piece. Just this past weekend, Ryan's publisher released that piece and used the Chorale's performance of it as the sample so people could also love and embrace it. You can hear it here. Re-hearing that piece brought back flood of memories of when I was a new person.

The Chorale concert was wonderful. The singers new and old sang their hearts out. The new choir school members will start their new journeys next week as an official member of the the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

As in all things, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir seasons end for several each year as retirement comes.  Service in the choir is 20 years or age 60 - whichever occurs first. Of course there are some that leave earlier because of family commitments or callings. The choir members know when they will be retiring. For many, they shield this because they don't want it to end. For some, they look forward to retirement form the choir, after serving for so long, being away from family they are ready for the change. A bond of family love envelops in the choir and when one of them has to retire, we leave a part of our hearts with them as they retire. We will miss their smiles, their jokes, their voices, and their physical presence.

Today was the day of retirements. As a member of the choir now for 3 years, I have developed brotherly love for several of those members that retired today.  It is a bittersweet event. Again, I remember as a new choir school member who was among those who patiently wait for their chance to take the seat in the choir loft, but also realize that that where that now empty seat is, there was a choir member who is now retired occupying it. As a new member with the assigned part (my part number is B-54), realizing that someone else occupied this number before me. As we sang our final, "God be with you till we meet again" to those who served between 5 and 20 years, my heart was filled with appreciation for each of them. They, too went through the same process. They, too had a part number and a seat occupied by someone else in the choir, and they, too sang, "God be with you" to choir family friends.

As seasons changing are inevitable, so is membership in the Mormon Tabernacle choir. Each new choir school, and each choir retirement brings the fact that my season must end too. It is inevitable. It is bittersweet. I want to push that thought away from my thoughts and just, as a former choir friend counseled me to, "soak it all in". I want to experience every moment that I have left in the choir and continue to sing testimony to my Savior. I will continue to sing in the Chorale until I retire and see the new seasons of the choir bloom, and also sing fond farewell to those who served well. To sum it all up, this is my hope that a retiree today expressed.

Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened - Dr. Seuss

God be with you, my fellow choir family members who enter into service and those who have finished their service until we sing again.
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