Witness Music

Back in 2012, I had a conversation with my good friend, Bart Olsen.  He told me about a music group he had been singing with and said that they were in need of a Chorus Master.  Witness Music prepares Rob Gardner's Lamb of God oratorio for performance every year.  I thought it would be a great experience to conduct a group that wasn't an LDS ward or stake choir so I said yes.  I had no idea what it would all lead to.

That first year, I prepared a choir of about 180 voices to sing in Abravanel Hall.  It was an absolutely amazing experience and one that I was very proud to be a part of.

The following year, we performed in Cottonwood High, which is rumored to be the largest high school auditorium west of the Mississippi.  Our founder, Garin Hess, had started a business this year and was not as available in terms of his time and resources so I was asked to play a larger role in the organization.

We also put on a Christmas concert and I conducted the choir and orchestra.  We also premiered one of my compositions - an arrangement of Come, All Ye Faithful.  It was a very special experience to hear the orchestra and choir bring that piece to life.  One I shall never forget.  But the best was yet to come.

Due to the increasing demands put on Garin's time, he asked me to be the Utah Chapter President and Director of Witness Music for the 2015 season.  I was super excited for the opportunity but had no idea what kind of demands it would place on my time, resources, and family.  We decided that we wanted to provide this show for free to the public so we set out to find venues that would help us accomplish this.  We eventually settled on St. Francis of Assisi Catholic church in Orem, UT and the Bountiful Regional Center in North Salt Lake.  This gave us a total of about 10,000 seats to fill including a youth night set aside on a Wednesday night just for youth and their leaders.

We had a very special experience come from our youth night.  We had a youth leader named Shari Bailey who came with her young women.  Shari is deaf and came up to Lisa Olsen our soloist who portrays Mary, Christ's mother (and Bart Olsen's wife) after the performance.  Lisa posted her conversation on Facebook.  "This sweet woman on the left is deaf and she came up to me after and told me that when she dies she wants to do what we do!!! Tears of love for this beautiful daughter of God! What a lovely night!"

Well, I couldn't just leave it at that so I asked if anyone knew her and we were able to make a connection.  We then invited Shari to come and "sing" in our choir for one of our performances.

It really turned into a very special experience for her and for those in the choir and orchestra who reached out to her in Christlike fellowship.  Many other hearts were touched, including mine.  Brennen volunteered for us on Saturday and ended up saying the opening prayer for a performance in front of thousands of people!  I'm sure proud of him.

I cannot believe that I was so blessed to be a part of this work.  We have had so many spiritual experiences through this work and this group.  We even call it our Witness family.