Retired Pastor Fulfills Lifelong Dream of Singing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir

By Mormon Tabernacle Choir Blog
Salt Lake City Utah, USA

When retired pastor Volker Schmitt-Illert was 6 years old, he first heard the Mormon Tabernacle Choir—it was on the American Forces Network in Germany, which he stumbled upon and tuned into every Sunday. Schmitt-Illert said, “At 9:20 every Sunday morning you could hear a half hour of Music and the Spoken Word, from the crossroads of the west.”

It didn’t matter that he didn’t understand a word of what was being sung—“I was hooked from the first day,” Schmitt said.

During soundcheck for the concert in Frankfurt, Schmitt got to sing with the Choir. When he was asked about his experience afterward he said, “It was a dream fulfilled because I wished I could sing with the Choir at least once in my life.” He added, “I’m a choir director myself also, and I can appreciate what a wonderful instrument Mack Wilberg created.”

Watch the Choir and Orchestra perform Mack Wilberg’s “Requiem Aeternam