Our mission president speaks at stake conferences - there are 10 stakes in the mission. At one conference, he was approached by a stake member who asked if he knew of any accompanists who would be willing to accompany a choir made up of stake members. He said, "I just happen to know someone". The next day I received a call from her, we arranged a meeting, and she and a choir member who spoke a bit of english came to my office. "We went next door to the chapel and I played through some music for them. Much of it I recognized, but had not played, some music was completely new and several I knew well, including Handel's Messiah, and some traditional Christmas hymn arrangements. I was officially invited to play for them, as their usual accompanist was scheduled to be out of the country during the Christmas season.

We practice every Sunday afternoon at 5 o'clock for 3, yes 3 hours! Wow! I couldn't believe it! They do take breaks and also break into sectionals. They have a very beautiful sound, and sing with feeling from their heart. No one actually reads music - they learn by ear, and love to sing together. Elder D was invited to sing in the tenor section, he has a matching tie, so is a bonafide member and the tallest by quite a bit.

[An aside, we leave for church at 8:30 am, walk about 3 blocks, catch a bus, ride it about 5 miles to the metro, board the metro and ride it to the end of the line, then walk 3 block to the chapel. The trip takes about 1 hour. Then we go to 3 hours of meetings, head back on the metro, get off half way home, are picked up at a metro stop by the choir director's husband, who is also the bishop of their ward (he's young, an RM, a banker in his 30's, they have a 5 year old little girl M, and a 3 year old JT),. have lunch with them, head for the choir rehearsal, then they take us back to the metro station, and we arrive home about 9:30pm. Happy and Tired!]

The photos above are of a Christmas concert we were part of at a huge metro station. It is a beautiful public space and there were several groups who performed, including a wonderful military band - first on the program - and we were the last. Unfortunately, since we are both on stage, there were no photos of the choir performing. I'll arrange something in the future.