Craig Jessop, the director and conductor of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, doesn’t have a clue about self-promotion. Won’t sit down to do interviews for stories about himself. Won’t take credit. Insists on sharing the baton and the stage. Has a humble streak about as big as the “Hallelujah Chorus.” Even now, he is cringing as he reads this, so let’s move on to …
… Mack Wilberg, the choir’s associate director. Same story. He is loathe even to come out and take a bow on stage and has to be coaxed into it. After performances he disappears to who knows where. He’d rather be composing music in a basement fruit room, which is what he used to do when he lived in Draper.
Wilberg and Jessop are doing a pretty good job of going through life almost anonymously, which isn’t easy when you consider the attention the choir is getting these days. The MoTabs’ Christmas CD, a recording of last year’s Christmas concert with the great Norwegian soprano Sissel, is No. 1 on the traditional Christmas charts. It was nominated for two Grammys last week.
The MoTabs’ annual Christmas concert has become so big that they will fill the 21,000-seat Conference Center four times this week. It has become a national event, with people flying in from around the country to attend. Because of the high demand, tickets were given away in a lottery this year. There were more than 1 million requests for tickets. Most must watch the performance a year later on TV — it is PBS’s top-rated show in December.
You know things are going well when the MoTabs are packing the old Tabernacle for rehearsals, which forced them to move to the Conference Center to accommodate them all.
So, Mr. Jessop, how about an interview? “As long as it’s not about me,” he says politely.
So this is not about him, or Wilberg, because, in their view, they are merely caretakers and the choir is not about one person, which makes sense since a choir is a choir. But let’s note this: Under the leadership of Jessop and Wilberg since 1999, the choir has discovered new possibilities for what the MoTabs can be.
As anyone who has attended their annual Christmas concerts in recent years can attest, this is not your father’s MoTabs.
For one thing, they have embraced musical diversity. They sing songs from the Caribbean, Catalonia, England, Wales, Norway, France and Africa, etc., as well as traditional African-American gospel songs. There have been acts with drums, bagpipes, World War I soldiers and dancers in the aisles.
People almost fell out of their chairs a couple of years ago when the choir sang and — what’s this?! — danced in front of their seats while singing “Betelehemu,” a Nigerian Christmas carol. It’s the closest thing to a boogie you’ll ever see from the MoTabs.
They also perform these days with big names — readings from Walter Cronkite, Roma Downey, Claire Bloom, Charles Osgood, Peter Graves and Angela Lansbury — and headline singing acts — Sissel, Tony Award-winner Audra McDonald, American soprano Renee Fleming, Welsh baritone Bryn Terfel, American opera diva Frederica von Stade and Gladys Knight without her Pips.
The ideas for songs come from the guest artists and from the vast collected experience of Wilberg and Jessop. Wilberg, for instance, learned “Betelehemu” from a man who sang the song to him and showed him the traditional dance that accompanies it from memory; from that, Wilberg was able to put musical notes on paper for the choir. When they performed it for the first time, “People acted like the Jazz had just scored the winning basket,” says longtime choir member Beth Breinholt. “We were stunned.”
For his part, Jessop has collected music from around the world in his travels as an Air Force officer, as well as his work with military and civilian choirs and bands.
“We’ve always tried to celebrate the diversity of the planet and the people who are all united in this faith and belief in the birth of Christ,” says Jessop. “They all put their own spin on it.”
And Jessop adds his own spin. It helps that he doesn’t operate in a classical vacuum. He was in the audience during James Taylor’s last concert appearance in Utah, and he has been known to tell the choir during practice sessions, “C’mon, sing it like the Supremes!” Or, “C’mon, be SheDaisy!” He’s worked with the likes of Sting, Oak Ridge Boys and Yo-Yo Ma.
For Jessop, nothing tops that moment when he stands in front of the choir, leaning into the face of 360 heavenly voices. “I’m the most blessed man on the planet,” he says. “I never take it for granted. I remember when (Utah Symphony conductor) Keith Lockhart led the choir. He looked at me with the biggest smile on his face. He said it was like standing in front of a force of nature, like Niagara Falls or the Grand Canyon. It’s one of the wonders of the world.”
