Organist Diane Meredith Belcher, who is celebrating her 50th anniversary season, will be the featured performer at the next concert in the Organ Virtuoso Concert series, on Friday, May 3, at 7:30 p.m. MDT, in the Tabernacle on Temple Square.
How to watch in person or online
The hourlong concert is free and open to the public, and no tickets are required, according to The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square’s announcement.
It will also be streamed at 7:30 p.m. MDT on the Tabernacle Choir’s website, TheTabernacleChoir.org, the Tabernacle Choir’s YouTube channel, broadcasts.ChurchofJesusChrist.org and the Gospel Stream app. After the performance ends, the video will be available on demand.
The Tabernacle Organ Virtuoso Performance Series
The Tabernacle Organ Virtuoso Performance Series started in 2022 and was created to showcase the Tabernacle organ and world-renowned organists and has been presented quarterly. The May 3 concert with Belcher is the eighth in the series.
The series began in 2022 with concerts by James Higdon, an organist from the University of Kansas; Gabriele Terrone, the Salt Lake City Cathedral of the Madeline’s organist and assistant director of music; and Andrew Unsworth, who has been a Tabernacle organist since 2007.
In 2023, performers were Viktor Billa, Ukrainian organist and soloist who is an organist at Trinity United Methodist Church in Tallahassee, Florida; James O’Donnell, professor in the practice of organ at Yale School of Music and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music in New Haven, Connecticut, and has had tenures at the Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral, both in London, England; Daniel Kerr, the chair of the Music Department at Brigham Young University–Idaho; and Brian Mathias, who has been a Tabernacle organist since 2018.
The first concert of 2024 featured Temple Square organist Linda Margetts.
The concerts with Margetts, Mathias, Kerr, O’Donnell, Billa and Unsworth and Terrone are available for on-demand viewing on the choir’s YouTube channel. (See videos below.)
About the Tabernacle organ
The Tabernacle pipe organ has five manuals, or keyboards, and 206 ranks of organ pipes and is among the world’s largest instruments. Its golden pipes are made from wood staves fashioned from Utah timber and still add to the sound of the famous instrument today.
There are also free daily organ concerts at noon in the Tabernacle. Previously, the Tabernacle organists performed a weekly “Piping Up! Organ Concerts at Temple Square” series that was streamed online. The series ended in November 2023, and past performances are available on the Tabernacle Choir’s YouTube channel on the “Piping Up! Organ Concerts at Temple Square” playlist or by searching #pipingup on the choir’s channel.
Playlists of organ music are available on the Tabernacle Choir’s YouTube channel, and those include “Tabernacle Choir Organ Performances,” “Organ Solos — The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square” and “The Salt Lake Tabernacle Organ: Celebrating 150 Years,” along with “Temple Square Organist: Linda Margetts,” “Tabernacle Organist: Clay Christiansen,” “Tabernacle Organist: Brian Mathias,” “Tabernacle Organist: Andrew Unsworth” and “Tabernacle Organist: Richard Elliott.”
About Diane Meredith Belcher
Since Belcher’s solo recital debut at age 15, she has performed throughout the U.S., Europe and Canada, including at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, California; Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, California; Verizon Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Benaroya Hall in Seattle, Washington; Woolsey Hall at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut; and the Oregon Bach Festival in Eugene, Oregon.
And now she can add the Tabernacle at Temple Square to that list.
In addition to performing with orchestras, she has presented duo recitals with such artists as Los Angeles Philharmonic trumpeter Rob Roy McGregor. Her solo recordings include the premiere of the Claremont Glatter-Götz/Rosales organ in Claremont, California, and a 2023 release of organ and trombone music with New York Philharmonic’s Joseph Alessi.
She has served at several institutions, including Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity in New York City; Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire; Saint Mark’s Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Westminster Choir College in Lawrenceville, New Jersey.
Past concerts in the Tabernacle Organ Virtuoso Performance Series
The concerts with Margetts, Mathias, Kerr, O’Donnell, Billa, Terrone and Unsworth are available for on-demand viewing on the choir’s YouTube channel.
