Tour - Seattle (performance)
Tour Diary 8: Performers add Benaroya Hall to their list of favorite venues
This performance was especially touching to me because of one story. A story of a family of the area and our performance with the power of music to heal.
I made a good friend in the orchestra. His name is Darrin Frank. He plays the viola. We ended up sitting with each other on the bus and we ended up talking the entire trip. We talked about music, about our past, etc. He served his mission in Hawaii so I immediately felt a kinship with him. He knows Polynesians well and it was like talking to a close friend.
Darrin is from Seattle and he shared some insights about the Benaroya Hall and about the city of Seattle. It was important information for me because I was scheduled to write the blog post for the official choir website about Seattle. His insight and input were very helpful to me. In fact, I could not have done it without his help. I'm very grateful to him.
He shared a family story that made this concert especially touching for me. I share it here but I wanted to share it on the choir blog but felt it was perhaps too personal. Darrin gave me permission to share it though so I'll share it here.
When the tour was initially announced, he reached out to his sister and invited her to be his guest on tour because they are both from Seattle. They are both musicians. She also sings. At the time, she declined because she was pregnant and the timing would not work. She was excited about a new baby. As time continued, she lost the baby. Devastated, it was too late to come on tour. In some miraculous way, she was able to attend the sound check rehearsal. She was extremely touched by the music. She (and Darrin) then began to see if they could get a ticket to the performance but the concert was sold out. There were no tickets to buy.
During dinner, Darrin and I were standing together in line when his sister came up to us. She was crying and said someone had just given her tickets. She could barely talk. The tears were just flowing down her face. She was very emotional. Of course, I hugged her. She talked about how moved she was during the sound check and how she really wanted to attend the concert and how everything worked out. She attended the concert and loved it. It was healing for her.
For me, I sang that concert for her. I knew she was there and everything I did I did with her in mind. I thought how much pain people experience when losing a child, as Liana and I have felt, and I realized just how powerful music was to heal the soul. You never get over it, but you do feel able to carry on.
When we sang "God Be With You" at the end of the concert, I sang it for her and for all those who feel pain from separation and the hope we all have in being reunited again in the future. The work is great and the atonement is powerful.
I will always remember Benaroya Hall and this performance because of this experience. It was a powerful way to be reminded of why the choir's work is important.
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| The program for the concert. |
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| Me and Brian Harker. We joined the choir at the same time and during this concert we sat by each other. He is a professor of music at BYU and a good friend. |
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| These guys are the real MVP's. Before the Benaroya concert in our tuxes. |
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| Me, Ivalani Bradshaw (another Tongan, she's a Uluave), Paul McGuire and Grant Jex after the concert. We were done. Yeah. |
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| I saw this violin case and had to take a picture. How do you bring your entire family with you on tour? You add their pictures in your intrument case. Beautiful to see this. |
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| Backstage of the Benaroya Hall stage. Here we changed and waited before going on stage. |
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| We were the only concert this summer that was sold out. Yes, sold out. Woot. |
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| I took this picture in the mirror. If you look carefully, you can see that the line goes up and down two halls. Long lines, a lot of people and squished together makes watchoir is not for you. |
