Marvin Payne's Christmas Concert

This year I had the opportunity to participate in a wonderful Christmas concert hosted by Marvin Payne. I guess this is his 26th year of doing these free concerts, but it was the first time I’d ever been to one. My friend, Jennifer Griffiths sang one of her songs, Night of the Lord, and I got to accompany for her. It’s a beautiful song (you can listen to it here. She does such a good job, and has such a beautiful voice!

It’s been a long time since I’ve been on stage, but I still found it very enjoyable- especially with the fun we had as a precurser to our actual performing. We were supposed to be able to come up to the stage through a side door while the audience was singing the carol, Far, Far Away on Judea’s Plains. At the beginning of the song, we left to go up there, but found the door was locked! We were not sure how many verses were in the song but we were a little panicked. We raced through the middle of the audience to get to the other side of the auditorium and tried the door on the other side- locked! You can imagine our relief when someone opened the door and we were quickly ushered in. With a silent quick prayer, we took our places on the stage, and then I proceded to make a total fool of myself by dropping the music 3 times on the floor! How dumb! It truly was a miracle, that even though we were out of breath from running, and had such a stress right before, Jennifer sang without a glitch, and I didn’t make any mistakes on the piano. More than that, the spirit was there, and it touched me, and everyone else who was listening to her message.

I’m so grateful for musical experiences that help me to grow. I would highly recommend coming to this great concert in the Highland/ Alpine area of Utah, if you ever get the chance. The choirs are wonderful, and it was a real treat to watch Marvin Payne lead the choir. It reminds me how much I also enjoy leading a choir…