XXXIV
Many people go through life thinking that it is terribley important to know famous people. In my life, I have concluded that it is far more important that famous people know you. “It’s not who you know, it is who knows you!” I think a perfect example of this is my experience with Dr. Jerold Ottley of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
Dr. Ottley was Music Director of the Salt Lake Mormon Tabernacle Choir from 1974 to 1999. In this capacity he prepared and performed nearly 1300 weekly radio and television broadcasts of “Music and the Spoken Word.” He also directed the choir in more than 30 commercial recordings and some 20 major tours, in addition to regular concerts in the Salt Lake Tabernacle. At the beginning of his career, Dr. Ottley had been a teacher and conductor in the schools and churches of Salt Lake City, and at the University of Utah, where he was assistant chair of the music department. After retirement, he served on a volunteer basis as administrator and teacher for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Training School, and as a lay Bishop for the congregation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
In the fall of 1993, I was a recovering divorcé, moving into a leased home at 5 Hartsdale Lane in Sicklerville, when my telephone rang. On the other end was Jerold Ottley, Director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. He spoke to me as if we were old friends, although we had never met. “Gene, what are you planning with your choir this season?” I answered that we were considering going to London, but what did he have in mind? When he told me, I was flabbergasted! He wanted me to bring my choir to Salt Lake, and give the featured concert for their Black History Month Celebration on Saturday Evening, February 5, in the Mormon Tabernacle; to serve as the demonstration choir for Jester Hairston’s workshop on Saturday; and to perform on the telecast from the Tabernacle, “Music and the Spoken Word,” on Sunday! There were other perks. He wanted us to prepare a group of Jester’s arrangements for Jester to conduct on our concert, and I was to conduct my choir on the telecast, as well as the Tabernacle Choir and my Choir combined in my arrangement of “Sinnuh, Please Don’t Let Dis Harves’ Pass!” Coming out of the blue, as it did, his offer left me stunned -- but I responded immediately that I would be honored to do so, and thanked him very much for the privilege. In the following month, in consultation with the Associate Tabernacle Choir Conductor, Donald Ripplinger, and Jester Hairston, we selected the repertoire for the concert, for the Hairston Workshop, and for the
telecast. It was, in aggregate, a lot of repertoire to prepare in the three remaining months of the fall semester.
Up until that time, the Chamber Choir enrollment had been limited to 24 singers by department policy. It was obvious that we needed a larger group to provide the desired sound in the Tabernacle which has 5000 seats. So my first job was to clear this with the Dean, and to recruit 12 additional singers, which brought the group’s enrollment to 36 . Equally obvious was the fact that we would never adequately prepare all that repertoire in three months with only three 70 minute rehearsals a week. I immediately added a three hour evening rehearsal which continued through the three-week winter break. Equally forbidding was the task of raising the necessary funds to fly the choir out to Salt Lake City. We would be housed and fed by the members of the Tabernacle Choir. As I recall, the Student Government Association and the Dean gave us $5000 toward the cost of the trip. The remainder was paid for by the individual singers. The concert program was as follows:
Three quarters of the program consisted of works by Hairston, Dawson and Johnson with Dett, John Work, and Undine Moore represented in the opening group. We were fortunate to have a strong contingent of soloists headed by Betty Lane, the featured Clara in the Houston Opera recording of Porgy and Bess. Betty had come to me a year earlier for some vocal rebuilding after a long career in which she had won a Grand Prix du Chants in the Belgian Concours. Along with her were Julie-Ann Whitely and Tina Marie Donato, sopranos; Howard Crossland and Stanley Stroman, tenors; Shane Gosdis, baritone and Donald Layton, bass.
We departed Philadelphia Airport for Salt Lake via Newark at 11:19 on Thursday, February 3, and arrived on time at 1:18 PM. We were picked up by our hosts from the Tabernacle Hospitality Center promptly at 3:00 and taken to places of residence. The schedule called for a full rehearsal at 8:00 that evening; sectionals at 10:00 and 11:00 on Friday morning; a full rehearsal from 2:00-5:00 on Friday afternoon; and Friday evening was free to see the city with an admonition to retire early. Saturday morning was left free with a two-hour afternoon full rehearsal and a 6:30 call for the concert.
Drs. Jerold Ottley, Eugene Thamon Simpson, Jester Hairston, and Donald Ripplinger
Pose Before Concert
The rehearsal on Saturday afternoon went well and as I was leaving the stage to check the acoustic from the auditorium, I failed to notice a foot-high beam that bordered the stage and nearly broke my big toe on my right foot. It was so swollen that one of our sopranos, Dr. Luisa Lehrer, went to Nordstrom’s and purchased an expensive pair of black opera pumps which I was able to wear and actually used for the concert. After the foot was comfortably clad, I felt no anxiety as we waited backstage prior to the concert. Dr. Ottley and Dr. Ripplinger came backstage to wish us good luck and we posed together for the treasured photo above.