The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square is pleased to present a new concert and performance as part of the Tabernacle Organ Virtuoso Performance Series on August 18 at 7:30 p.m. in the Salt Lake Tabernacle. This upcoming performance will feature Daniel Kerr, who is the chair of the Music Department at Brigham Young University–Idaho (BYU–Idaho). This event, like others in the series, is free to the public, and no tickets are required. 

Daniel Kerr, in his position at BYU-Idaho, also directs the organ studies program and coordinates the BYU–Idaho Hymn Festival, which commissions new hymn texts and tunes each year. Daniel received his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctor of musical arts degrees from the University of Southern California (USC) Thornton School of Music, where he studied organ with Dr. Ladd Thomas and Professor Cherry Rhodes. Prior to his appointment at BYU–Idaho he taught at USC and at California State University, Los Angeles and was organist and handbell choir director at Pasadena Presbyterian Church.

The Organ Virtuoso Performance Series is designed to showcase renowned organists from around the globe playing one of the world’s most famous and iconic pipe organs. Previous performances have featured James Higdon, professor of organ and director of the Division of Organ and Church Music at the University of Kansas; Gabriele Terrone, principal organist at the Cathedral of the Madeleine, in Utah; Andrew Unsworth, Tabernacle organist; Viktor Billa, a Ukranian concert organist; and James O’Donnell, Professor in the Practice of Organ at Yale School of Music.

This upcoming performance by Daniel Kerr is much anticipated and will be enlightening and enjoyable for all who enjoy classical organ music. Daniel has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra as well as at various conventions of the American Guild of Organists (2004 National Convention, 2011 Northwest Regional Convention, and 2017 West Regional Convention). He was also a soloist for the 2008 Eccles Organ Festival at Salt Lake’s Cathedral of the Madeleine and is a regular guest recitalist on the organs of Temple Square.

The evening’s performance will include pieces such as “Jesus Christus, unser Heiland,” by Franz Tunder, “Fantasia and Fugue in G Minor, BWV 542,” by Johann Sebastian Bach, and “Psalm-Preludes, set 2, no. 3,” by Herbert Howells, among other notable works.

For those that are unable to attend next week’s performance in person, the performance will be live streamed on the Choir’s website and will also be available after the performance on the Choir’s YouTube channel.

After next week’s performance, the next concert in the Tabernacle Organ Virtuoso Performance Series will be on October 13, 2023, and will feature Brian Mathias, Tabernacle organist.