FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 13, 2003
Mormon Tabernacle Choir Launches
Solely Owned Record Label
Inaugural release includes best-loved hymns,
popular songs
The world-renowned Mormon Tabernacle Choir announces a milestone--the creation of its own recording label. The Choir is the sole owner of the new label that will be called Mormon Tabernacle
Choir"
Choir to leverage the strength of the Choir's well-known name and reputation.
After recording more than 150 albums for such recognized industry labels as CBS Records, Columbia, Sony and Telarc, the Choir will now direct and produce its own recordings, including CDs,
videos of special concerts and documentaries. Recent video performances of the Choir's Christmas concert with Angela Lansbury and an historic tour to Nauvoo, Illinois will be re-released under the new label later this year.
"The creation of our own label is a real landmark for the Choir, something we've hoped to do for years," said Choir president Mac Christensen. "Having a solely owned label will give us greater creative freedom, the ability to control all aspects of the production, and greater influence over distribution and marketing. We are ready as a Choir and an organization to capitalize on this opportunity."
In establishing the new label, the Choir has put in place an agreement with the values-based national music publisher Shadow Mountain to distribute and market the products produced under the new label. Through Shadow Mountain's established partnerships with well-respected national distribution firms such as RedBall Group Distribution and Soundburst Audio Distributors, the Choir's products will have access to broad national distribution in major music and publishing outlets.
Inaugurating the launch of the new label is the Choir's latest CD, Consider the Lilies. Debuting in time for Easter, Consider the Lilies offers newly recorded arrangements of many of the Choir's most-requested songs. Recorded in the historic Tabernacle in Salt Lake City and accompanied by the Orchestra at Temple Square, the 17-track album includes,
For the Beauty of the Earth, God So Loved the World, The Lord Bless You and Keep You, I Believe in Christ, This is Christ, and the title track Consider the Lilies.
Also included in the new CD is a new arrangement of Morning Has Broken by Mack Wilberg, Associate Director of the Choir. Originally a traditional Gaelic hymn, the arrangement is a fresh version of a song popularized in the 1970s.
Frequently referred to as America's Choir, the Choir performs an average of 75 times per year and has a list of credits including five gold and two platinum records, a Grammy and an Emmy award, singing for ten U.S. presidents, performing for the world at the 2002 Winter Olympics, and touring to many of the world's most prestigious music venues. Its weekly show Music and the Spoken Word is carried by more than 2,000 radio, TV and cable stations worldwide, and the show celebrates its 75th year of continuous network broadcast beginning in July 2003.
Craig Jessop is the Choiris music director, assisted by associate directors Mack Wilberg and Barlow Bradford. Many of the songs on the new CD are arrangements done by Wilberg and Bradford, both gifted composers and arrangers. All 360 Choir members, along with the 110-member Orchestra at Temple Square, are volunteers.
Consider the Lilies will be available by April 2003. For more product information, visit
www.mormontabernaclechoir.org
.
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Contact:
Gail Brown/Product News
801-517-3223
801-865-6619 cell
gbrown@mormontabernaclechoir.org
Michael von Rosen/Choir Publicist
801-240-6360
801-859-7773 cell
mvonrosen@mormontabernaclechoir.org
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