Hello again, everyone! This morning, there was an unexpected update from the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra, and Bells at Temple Square. Although the development in question was reported earlier this morning, I'm still classifying it as breaking news. So let's look at the relevant details here. First, the daily organ recitals, which have been offered virtually for the last several months, will reopen to the public beginning Monday July 19. On Monday-Saturday, those daily recitals are scheduled for noon MDT, while they are scheduled to occur at 2:00 PM MDT on Sundays.
But with the return to daily organ recitals that are again open to the public, the Church will continue to provide a virtual edition of those recitals in the ongoing Piping Up! series will continue to be live-streamed through the Choir's Youtube channel every Wednesday at noon. Meanwhile, a phased reopening plan has been announced for the Choir, Orchestra, and Bells. The Choir will resume in-person rehearsals on Thursday August 26, which will be open to the public starting on Thursday October 7. The Bells at Temple Square resume regular rehearsals onWednesday September 1, which will again open to the public beginning Wednesday October 6.
The Choir has also announced that the completely-live Music & the Spoken Word broadcasts will replace the hybrid version of the broadcast (prerecorded performances with a new Spoken Work message) beginning Sunday September 19, and that beginning Sunday October 10, the live broadcasts of "Music and the Spoken Word" will again be open to the public. The Choir further announced that, for the October 2021 General Conference, rather than using prerecorded music, the Choir will provide music for three of the four General Conference Sessions.
Although the particulars of that are not spelled out specifically, I'm reasonably certain that the three sessions in question will be the Saturday Morning and Sunday Morning and Afternoon Sessions. As far as how that will work, I imagine that the Choir will be in either the otherwise-empty Conference Center or possibly the Tabernacle at Temple Square, with the feed of their performances piped in to the Conference Center Auditorium, from which the rest of the sessions will originate.
Today's announcement also noted that the Choir hopes to be able to present a live Christmas Concert this year, but official confirmation on the details will be deferred until they are more firmly set and able to move forward. I am grateful to see that the Choir, Orchestra, and Bells at Temple Square have announced a phased plan to move towards normal practices and performances, and will be be interesting to see how all of that turns out.
On an unrelated note, Iu had recently mentioned that I anticipated at least a few major temple-related announcements in the near term, but when I made those statements, I had somehow spaced the fact that July has been the typical recess month for the General Authorities and General Officers of the Church. As a result, although we could see a few other breaking news updates this month, I imagine that July could potentially be a much quieter month than we have most recently seen in terms of major general developments or specific temple announcements.
I will keep my eyes open for word on all such developments and will do my level best to pass word of those along to you all as I become aware thereof. That does it for now. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly added content, please feel free to subscribe. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.
