Sadie Mortensen performs Auld Lang Syne
LOGAN – The pandemic has prevented the Logan Tabernacle Concert and Lecture Series, and its parent organization Cache Community Connections, from holding its typical Christmas concert series at the Logan Tabernacle.
Like many organizations, they have found a way to spread Christmas cheer by producing a virtual concert with many of the same local performing artists they have used in the past and some new ones, too.
A Cache Valley Christmas Concert will be available virtually starting Thursday, Dec. 17, at 6 p.m. and continue to be accessible until Jan. 4, 2021. To view the concert, visit CacheCommunityConnections.org any time after 6 p.m. on Thursday.
“We decided to hold a virtual concert and make it available to everyone from the comfort of their own homes,” said Richard West, a member of Cache Community Connections. “The artists performing in this virtual concert are many of the same ones we have come to love and appreciate for their appearances in previous Tabernacle concerts.”
There are about a dozen performing artist who have agreed to participate in the virtual concert. The entire concert is scheduled to last just under an hour.
Performers signed up for this year’s Christmas concert were Craig Mecham, Irv Nelson, Betty Hammond, the Espino Family, John Edwards and his Good Times Band, Karla Axtell, Sadie Mortensen, Anna Anawalt with the Bear River Ramblers, the Broadbent family and the Major Family Ranch Hand Band.
“We included links to The Cache Children’s Choir, the Westminster Bell Choir and Utah State University’s music department’s Chamber Singers and USU Chorale,” he said. “Some expressly wanted to be a part of our Christmas concert, but there was no room for them, so we decided to link their concerts.”
The Espino Family will sing an upbeat Venezuelan folk song in Spanish, “My Little Donkey from Bethlehem.” There is also 17-year-old Sadie Mortensen who sings and plays guitar. She will perform “Auld Land Syne” and is just getting started in her music career, West said.
There also a lot of familiar faces of artists that have been part of the Concert and Lecture series in the past who will also perform.
“Each performance will be accessed through a website created just for this virtual concert,” he said. “And, of course, just as the actual concerts in the Tabernacle, this virtual concert will be available free of charge.”
This will be a gift from the Logan Tabernacle Concert and Lecture Series Committee, and the Cache Community Connections to the community during this Christmas season that has been marked by challenging and unsettling conditions.
There are a collection of fun and uplifting numbers in the collection that should help bring in the Christmas season. Some take place in front of Christmas trees and fireplaces, while some groups were so big they had to be videoed in gym.