It isn’t often you see your own life’s history on public display. At least not for Jeni Hall, a library circulation manager from West Point, Utah. But recently, while on a two-nation tour with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, she came face-to-face with herself as part of a new Church exhibit.
Choir member Jeni Hall reminisces in front of a wardrobe display. Her favorite outfit? The one on the left, a raspberry two-piece with length sleeves and a magnetic leaf-shaped brooch. “The wardrobe ladies say that when we breathe, the medallion glitters.”
“It’s kind of like looking through your own family picture album,” says Jeni, a first alto who began studying to sing in the Choir when she was sixteen. Since that time-she turns sixty this year-she has raised seven children and sung intermittently with the Choir for nearly twenty years. “Now at this point in time when my children are grown and gone, and my husband is gone [traveling on business],” singing with the Choir is a major part of her life. “It’s about equal in my heart with my full-time job.”
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir Exhibit
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir exhibit was conceived as part of the Church’s Traveling Exhibit series. “Part of the drive is that the Choir was going to be on tour,” explains an exhibit manager who worked on the project. “We wanted to generate some interest in seeing the Choir perform.”
The exhibit took a year to put together, and combined efforts of the Exhibits Division of the Missionary Department and Choir staff. Displays include wardrobe, awards, history, leadership, tour highlights, and Music and the Spoken Word. A listening kiosk allows visitors to select from ten representative songs by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
An interactive podium creates the effect that the visitor is conducting the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Image courtesy of Historic Kirtland.
By far the most popular part of the exhibit is an interactive podium where visitors can conduct the Choir. Controls allow “guest conductors” to manually adjust the volumes of different vocal parts and control tempo with a baton. A visual pattern maps out the correct way to conduct each time signature, which teaches as it entertains. The podium setup gives the viewer the illusion of standing in the doorway of the Old Tabernacle, the Choir’s first permanent home. A special video recording was even made for this display, which features the Choir singing without a conductor, so the viewer really does seem to be leading the show.
The Choir Tours Its Own Exhibit
Some of the first visitors to the new exhibit were members of the Choir and the Orchestra at Temple Square, currently on tour. They passed slowly by each panel, pointing at favorite (or least favorite!) costumes, and pausing where artifacts or photographs recalled special memories.
Andy Schow, who sings bass, stopped in front of a panel showing the 2002 Winter Olympics, where the Choir performed for a worldwide audience. “It was the coldest thing I’ve ever been to,” he grins “The wind came across the ice and right up into our faces. The wind instruments actually had ice in them.” He recalls President Hinckley looking out at the audience, all wrapped in warm, colorful blankets. “‘You look like a great quilt,’ he said to them.”
“In many ways, it’s very tender for us to see the displays,” says Jeni, who says Choir members have extra memories “that aren’t really contained in the display itself. You remembered what happened there.”
Jeni describes attending an Inaugural parade. Choir members had hundreds of hand-warmer packets in their hands and plenty of layers to keep warm. But “we were parked next to a high-school band, and they were out there freezing in their little flag-twirling outfits. So we started passing them our hot-packs. It helped them out and it wasn’t a big hardship for us. Later on we heard how impressed they were that something as hoity-toity as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir would pass their hand-warmers to a high-school band.”
The Choir display also brings back “memories of miracles in many ways,” continues Jeni. “One of the big miracles was on a tour to Houston. The city had been flooded out, including our venue. We had no place to perform. Through a series of miraculous circumstances we were scheduled to performed in an arena-a stockyard arena. It was a performing venue, but it was a stockyard arena.
“The miracle there is that it was much larger than the house we’d been booked in. We were able to invite the many civic workers who had been coping with the flood to come for free. That gave the missionaries an opportunity to visit with many more people. Our entry point for the Choir threw us right up against the crowd, so we could mingle. That turned into a huge proselytizing activity, when before it was just a cultural activity.”
A Great Legacy
Karen Barker poses in front of a close-up photograph of herself that is included in the display. “You never know when the camera will catch you!”
“It makes me feel small-a small part of a great organization and legacy,” says Karen Barker, a first alto who has sung with the choir since 1999. “It’s so unique to be a singing missionary.” When asked how she feels about a close-up photograph of her own face, she responds, “How does it feel to have my face traveling with the exhibit? It happens. You never know when the camera will catch you!”
“We are just one little cog in this great big machine,” adds Andy, who has been in the Choir nearly sixteen years. “When we’re done someone else will take over. That’s really hard to admit. But [the Choir] will go on and get better.”
See the Display
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir exhibit is planned to travel to several Church historic site and temple Visitor’s Centers throughout the United States. It will be at Historic Kirtland at least through the end of this summer. Those interested in seeing the exhibit in a future location should check with the Visitor’s Centers nearest them, or those to which they will be traveling.
