About this item
A first-of-its-kind history, The Mormon Tabernacle Choir tells the epic story of how an all-volunteer group founded by persecuted religious outcasts grew into a multimedia powerhouse synonymous with the mainstream and with Mormonism itself.. . Drawing on decades of work observing and researching the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Michael Hicks examines the personalities, decisions, and controversies that shaped "Americas choir." Here is the miraculous story behind the Tabernacles world-famous acoustics, the anti-Mormonism that greeted early tours, the clashes with Church leaders over repertoire and presentation, the radio-driven boom in popularity, the competing visions of rival conductors, and the Choirs aspiration to be accepted within classical music even as Mormons sought acceptance within American culture at large. Everything from Billboard hits to TV appearances to White House performances paved the way for Mormonisms crossover triumph. Yet, as Hicks shows, such success raised fundamental concerns regarding the Choirs mission, functions, and image.
About the Author
Author, composer, and performer Michael Hicks received a DMA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1984 and has been teaching at Brigham Young University since 1985.
He has authored five books: Mormonism and Music: A History (1989) , Sixties Rock: Garage, Psychedelic, and Other Satisfactions (1999) , Henry Cowell, Bohemian (2002) , and The Mormon Tabernacle Choir: A Biography (2015) --all published by University of Illinois Press--as well as The Street-Legal Version of Mormon's Book (self-published, 2012) . He is also the lead co-author (with Christian Asplund) of Christian Wolff (University of Illinois, 2012) .
His historical and analytical articles have appeared in books such as the Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World and the Oxford Handbook of Mormonism as well as journals that include American Music, Journal of Aesthetic Education, Journal of the American Musicological Society, and Perspectives of New Music. He has been an invited guest lecturer at Stanford and the University of California at Berkeley and has read papers at various national meetings of groups such as the Society for American Music and the American Musicological Society. He has twice won the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award (1994 and 2003) for his writing about music and a third time as editor of the journal American Music, a post he held from 2007-2010.
His poetry, meanwhile, has been published in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Literature and Belief, BYU Studies, and Sunstone, and in the anthologies Cadence of Hooves (2008) , New Poets of the American West (2010) , and Fire in the Pasture (2011) .
His chamber and solo works have been performed and recorded by BYU's University Singers, Concert Choir, and Group for New Music (which he founded in 1987) ; by other performers around the country (including the Black Swamp Saxophone Quartet, the Menlo Brass Quintet, and the Memphis Symphony Brass Quintet) ; and by performing artists at events of the NOVA Chamber Series, American Society of University Composers, Cincinnati Composers Guild, and the Subtropics Music Festival. His chamber music may be heard on the CDs Found Horizon (1994) , Late Conversations (1996) , Ritual Grounds (2003) , and Felt Hammers (2015) , all on the Tantara label, which in 2007 also issued his singer-songwriter album Valentine St.
His many solo performances range from the Utah premiere (2006) of Morton Feldman's Palais de Mari to folk concerts for the fortieth anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (performed at various locations in Utah and Colorado, 2008) .
