This past March, Broadway star and previous guest artist of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Audra McDonald, set the stage for the choir’s upcoming concerts at the magnificent Strathmore Music Center in Bethesda, Maryland, by wowing fans with selections including I Could Have Danced All Night and Over the Rainbow.  On June 25, Audra’s friends in the Choir and Orchestra hope to do the same with their own mix of inspirational, classical, and Broadway tunes drawn from the “Great American Songbook.”

The renowned acoustics and striking beauty of the 1,976-seat Strathmore concert hall are sure to enhance the first performances of the Choir’s Atlantic Coast tour.  Anne Midgette of The Washington Post says it is “the best concert hall, acoustically and aesthetically, in the region.”  Used to singing in the Salt Lake City Tabernacle, whose acoustics are also world famous, the Choir and Orchestra should feel right at home.

Regulars at Strathmore often comment that there is not a bad seat in the house.  What they may not realize is that high above them are 43 individually controlled acrylic panels that fine-tune sound for clarity and reverberation, along with tunable curtains behind bronze grilling and banners that dampen or enliven the sound as needed.  State-of-the-art acoustics may seem like magic, but they’re not, as all those who work so hard to manage the sound for the Choir well know!

The interior of the concert hall glows with lustrous maple floors and alabaster art glass fixtures, while the exterior roof follows the outline of the undulating ceiling and echoes the rolling hills of the Center’s park-like grounds. In this beautiful setting, the Strathmore organization seeks to provide high quality arts events with “the hospitality and warmth of a family enterprise.” With Audra McDonald’s well-received performance in March and upcoming concerts by the Choir and Orchestra, it certainly seems to be succeeding.