Soft Sell

This chapter focuses on the activities of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, first under Jay Welch and later Jerold Ottley. When Harold Lee ascended to the Mormon Presidency, he ramped up the musical forces of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He called dozens of new personnel, most of them academics, to a new Church Music Department that replaced the old Church Music Committee. Church President Spencer Kimball decided to replace Richard Condie with Welch, the conductor of the Mormon Youth Symphony and Chorus. Welch agreed to direct both the Tabernacle Choir and the Mormon Youth Symphony and Chorus, but he would soon be replaced by Ottley. This chapter first considers Welch's vision of Choir programming before discussing Ottley's initiatives as Choir conductor, along with the Choir's duties and achievements such as recordings, broadcasts, concerts, funerals, conferences, and international tours.