On Friday, March 17 and Saturday, March 18, 2017, at 7:30 p.m. in the Salt Lake Tabernacle, the Temple Square Chorale and Orchestra at Temple Square will present a joint spring concert entitled “Mozart & Mendelssohn.” The concert will begin with the Orchestra performing Felix Mendelssohn’s Overture in C Major, op. 101.  The Chorale and Orchestra will then present the Great Mass in C Minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The concerts will be led by Ryan Murphy, associate conductor of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and conductor of the Temple Square Chorale. 

Overture in C Major, op.101 was composed by Mendelssohn in 1826 at the age of sixteen, just before he wrote the Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which the Orchestra at Temple Square performed in concert last year. Many music historians consider the Overture in C Major as the preliminary study for the later work. 

Great Mass in C Minor was composed by Mozart in Vienna in 1782 and 1783 and was first performed in Salzburg on October 26, 1783. The premiere fulfilled a vow he had made to write a mass to be performed when he brought his then fiancée Constanze to Salzburg as his wife.  Constanze was the soloist for “Et incarnatus est” at its premiere.  The Great Mass in C Minor is a work in twelve movements which incorporated much, but not all, of the full liturgical mass. It conveyed much of pomp and solemnity associated with the Salzburg musical traditions of the time and showed the influence of Bach and Handel, whose music Mozart was studying at the time. 

The Temple Square Chorale was formed in 1999 and serves as the training ensemble for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. It is comprised of new members completing their audition process, members who were new to the Choir the previous year, plus additional current Choir volunteers, to provide a complement of roughly 100 singers.

The Orchestra at Temple Square is an all-volunteer musical organization formed in 1999 under the leadership of Gordon B. Hinckley, then President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and advisor to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Its charter is to accompany the musical ensembles of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir organization and to perform in concerts of its own. 

Tickets are free but required for this annual event. Beginning Tuesday, February 14, 2017 at 10:00 a.m. the tickets will be available by calling 801-570-0080 or visiting lds.org/events. Tickets are limited to four per person.  Admission to this event is limited to those ages eight and older. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. each evening, and concertgoers should be in their seats by 7:15 p.m.  Patrons without tickets are invited to stand by for last-minute seating in the line which forms at the flag pole by the Tabernacle on Temple Square.