Melbournian Trevor Clarke Travels with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir

Trevor Clarke, an 82-year old Melbournian took a trip of a lifetime recently when he was invited to travel with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on their recent tour to Europe. Trevor met up with the Choir when he was 18 and living in New Zealand, where he was born. He heard their weekly Sunday broadcast (Monday in the Pacific area) and “was just blown away.”

He never missed a performance until he moved to Australia when he was 22. Since they were not on the air in Australia, he had a long drought until he found them again 20 years ago on local radio station 95.7 FM on Sunday mornings at 9 a.m. 

Once again he could listen to the Choir every week. He especially loved the uplifting messages given each week by the announcer—first Richard L Evans, a member of the Church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who was the voice for the Choir for 41 years, and now the current announcer, Lloyd Newell,  “who presents such common sense—things we don’t think about but should,” said Trevor.

Through the years he has collected Choir memorabilia whenever he found something of interest, including many of the Choir’s recordings and also organ recitals by Alexander Schreiner and Frank Asper from the 50’s and 60’s.

In 2013 he decided he should go to Salt Lake City and experience the Choir in person, so he booked a ticket and went. While there, he attended the daily organ recitals in the Tabernacle as well as the Choir rehearsal and the Sunday morning broadcast. “I had such a wonderful visit I was back there again in ten months."

During these visits he became acquainted with Clay Christiansen, one of the Tabernacle Choir organists and shared with him his lifelong enthusiasm for the Choir. The two became good friends and started a correspondence that has continued ever since. His friendship with Clay and other choir personnel including Lloyd Newell resulted in an invitation to accompany the Choir on their first European tour in 25 years this past June and July.

Mr Clarke flew to Germany where he caught up with the Choir in Berlin for their first concert and went to three additional concerts in Vienna, Zurich, and Frankfurt. “There are no words to describe how wonderful this trip was. I’m not a Mormon,” he said.  “I just love my music, and to me, this is just the greatest choir in the world.”

Mr Clarke is planning to return to Salt Lake City in 2018 to be present for the 90th anniversary of the Choir’s weekly broadcast, which is now the longest continuous radio broadcast in the world. “I think they’ll be doing something really special for that,” he says.