The Mormon Tabernacle Choir at the Musikverein

Our kids all love to listen to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. It’s practically background music to their lives. Before Oliver could even speak in sentences, he was singing along to Motab. So when we heard that the 360 person Choir and Orchestra at Temple  Square was going to play in the world famous Vienna Musikverein, we booked tickets the day the box office opened months ago.

Before the concert started, Oliver and Chris went to get the tickets from the box office. Oliver was excited to hold all the tickets and when he saw that we had the front row for our box, he was over the moon. We’ve never taken them to a Mormon Tabernacle Choir Concert in the Utah because until now they haven’t been old enough. It’s funny that instead of taking them to a normally free concert a few hours from our house, back in Utah, we spent a couple hundred bucks to see the same thing a few thousand miles away in Vienna! But this was in the famous Golden Musikverein, and the proceeds were all donated to the Catholic charity here in Vienna, which was pretty cool.

James stayed at home thanks to the help of our Home Teacher, as the concert was from 8-10:30pm. Marion was technically too young  to attend, but we figured it was worth a try, and others in Vienna seemed to have felt the same way as she wasn’t the youngest there. Outside the Musikverein, there was a massive crowd of Mormons, because as everyone knows Mormons show up early, talk in the halls, and start meetings late.  We spotted two Sister Missionaries and asked them to take this picture.

As we were talking to them afterwards, we both noticed that one of them had the last name Brinkerhoff, and lo and behold, she is actually the grand-daughter of one of our neighbors back home in Glendale, Utah! Small world to meet someone with a connection to a 300-person town in southern Utah, but if it’s going to happen, it would definitely be at a gathering of Mormons…

We splurged on our tickets and got front row box seats as this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the Choir while we are here in Vienna. The last time the Motab Choir was in Vienna was 25 years ago, so the chance of us being back again when they return is slim. However, Oliver did say he wanted to take his kids when he’s a grown-up. Oliver absolutely loves Mack Wilberg, the choir’s conductor, so when he entered the room Oliver had the happiest look ever on his face. Here you can see little Ollie when he was two years old “conducting” the Choir along with Mack. Oliver has always loved music and putting on concerts, as you can see here as well.

Oliver and Elora thoroughly enjoyed the concert. Marion required a bit more work to keep engaged, but that’s because she was pretty tired by then. The kids enjoyed looking around in the concert hall to spot people they knew. We saw several friends throughout the evening.

Here are a couple videos from the concert we auspiciously took. The first one is my favorite hymn, and the second is an inspiring Nigerian Christmas song. It’s fun to see the normally straight laced Choir get into the African rhythm.

Marion finally fell asleep when the Choir started singing some of the familiar hymns we sing at church because she said, “It sounds like when Mommy sings me a lullaby.”

On the way home, since it was nearly 11pm, and no one was watching, we let the kids climb on this beautiful statue at the bus stop near Volkstheater. Then, since we were already up late, we decided to let the kids stay up later and have ice cream sundaes. Yum!