They were pretty young to have a dream come true!  Eleven singers from four local high school choirs sang on stage with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for the afternoon sound check at Saratoga Springs Performing Arts Center July 29. They were joined on the risers with three of their school conductors.  Unanimously they beamed, “It was a chance of a lifetime!”

“Being able to sit with the Choir, matching pitch, and sight reading all the music was such an incredible experience,” Ashley Fugal, recently graduated senior Burnt Hills High School heading for Utah State, was quick to say. “Choir members behind me and in front of me kept telling me how well I was doing, and I had tears in my eyes.”

The magic didn’t stop there.  A cadre of almost 50 from the Princeton Girls’ Choir, en route to Montreal for their own concert tour, met with Mack Wilberg, Choir Director and Ryan Murphy for a brief question and answer session. “How do you memorize so much music?” one girl asked.  “Mack Wilberg smiled and responded, “The same way you do.”

Among the patrons were 100 families of military personnel invited as special guests for the evening performance.  They didn’t just come and listen—they were treated with special recognition for their service from the local Tabernacle Choir tour representatives. In addition commanders of the four local military bases were invited guests for the concert that concluded, fittingly with “Battle Hymn of the Republic” and “This Land Is Your Land.”

By evening some 6,000 guests had filled the seats and were on the lawn of what is considered the number one outside amphitheater in the nation. It was a sell-out!

“The concert sold itself,” ticket sales coordinator Jan Fugal said.