Christ UMC is hosting Joyful Noel concert performance with the Salt Lake Chinese Choir and Christ UMC Chancel Choir on Saturday, December 9th at 4:00 pm in the Sanctuary. This is the third in a concert series to benefit our organ restoration. 

Questions about this series may be directed to our Music Director, Dr. Shelby Fisher.

​Donations will be accepted at the concert or online at this link.

Prior concerts in the concert series:
Broadway Hits - 19 November 2023
​Organ Spooktacular - 15 Oct 2023

Joyful Noel Concert

December 9, 2023

Joyful Noel

"O Nata Lux"
        by Tom Porter
"A Faraway Place of Dreams" (期待的遠方)
        by Shichao Zhang (张士超)
"Chi Le Song" (敕勒歌)
        arr. Hao Wu (吴昊)
"Do You Know?" (知否知否)
        arr. Tianyang Zhang (张天阳)
"Together" (當我們一起走過)
        arr. Meng-Feng Li (李孟峰)
"On Christmas Night, All Christians Sing"
        arr. Patti Drennan
"Silent Night"
        arr. Barlow Bradford
"Festival First Nowell"
​        arr. Dan Forrest

About the Musicians

The Salt Lake Chinese Choir is a non-profit organization that promotes cross-cultural understanding and preserves Chinese culture through choral arts. Led by Dr. Yu-Feng Huang, the choir has gained recognition within and beyond the Chinese musical community, performing in numerous cultural celebrations, ceremonies, charitable causes, and other events over the past two decades. In 2021, the choir was invited to perform at the ACDA Annual Conference Opening Concert, a highly regarded event in the choral arts community. Despite the pandemic-induced constraints, the choir has demonstrated adaptability by presenting virtual performances and on-site concerts, including three successful live performances that were made possible through vigorous COVID testing. The choir also initiated a Chinese singing program to impart the melodies of Chinese songs to non-Chinese speaking participants, promoting cross-cultural understanding.

As a non-profit organization, the Salt Lake Chinese Choir relies on the support of generous businesses and individual donors to continue its active involvement in the community and further the understanding and appreciation of diverse cultures. The choir aspires to be a preeminent cultural institution that harnesses the transformative power of music to bridge cultural divides and foster a harmonious relationship between the singers and the audience. Moving forward, the choir will continue its efforts to deliver more Chinese-style performances and do its part in achieving world cultural harmony.

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黃育峰 Yu-Feng Huang
 
Dr. Yu-Feng Huang is an accomplished choral conductor hailing from Taiwan. He holds a DMA in Choral Conducting from the University of Utah and has over a decade of experience serving as a music director for more than ten choirs, including university and community choirs in Taiwan. His expertise has made him a leading figure in the contemporary Chinese choral scene.
 
Dr. Huang's research centers on developing clear and concise guidelines to enable non-Chinese speakers to sing Chinese music authentically. He has utilized this expertise to establish the Chinese Choral Repertoire Promotion Project, which fosters intercultural communication through choral music. As a guest conductor, Dr. Huang has introduced Asian choral music to American audiences.
 
Dr. Huang has studied under distinguished choral conductors, such as Dr. Barlow Bradford and Dr. Ai-Kuang Sun, and was a protégé of famed choral conductor Fang-Pei Lien. He currently serves as the music director of the Salt Lake Chinese Choir, where he has played an essential role in enhancing the choir's reputation.

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王妍琦 Yanqi Wang
 
Yanqi Wang is pursuing her Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree in Piano Performance at the University of Utah, study under the guidance of the piano area head, Dr. Ning Lu. She has been playing piano since she was four years old. In 2014, she was admitted to the School of Music in Nanjing Normal University, study with the chair of piano department, Professor Yuyu Zhang. After earning her bachelor’s degree in music (BM), she continued her study with Dr. Ning Lu and earned her Master of Musical Art (MM) in Piano Performance from University of Utah in 2021.

As a pianist, she was the prizewinner of several competitions, included the first prize of 2021 Summer Arts Competition Young Artist Piano Solo; 2021-2022 MTNA-Stecher and Horowitz Two-Piano Competition; third prize in 2022-2023 MTNA-Stecher and Horowitz Two-Piano Competition; UMTA State Piano Concerto Competition; second prize in CADANZA piano competition; honorable mention in 2017 YAMAHA national piano competition and KAWAI Asia Piano Competition, Junior Professional. As a collaborative pianist and chamber musician, she was invited to the Saarburg Chamber Music Festival in 2017 and has been a piano accompanist with the Salt Lake Chinese Choir since 2018, University of Utah Chamber Choir and A Capella Choir since 2022.
 
She has earned piano scholarship for three consecutive years during her undergraduate study. During her master years in the University of Utah, she earned teaching assistantship for two years and served as a teaching assistant with the piano minor college students.

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Bryan Kiang
 
Bryan started his musical journey as a pianist and later began playing the flute at a young age in his elementary school band to college. Bryan’s career continued at the university where he was offered the Pone Scholarship 2015 – 2019 and 2019 – 2021. He was also the recipient of the Piano Pedagogy Award in 2019 during his undergraduate studies. During graduate school, he was the winner of the 2019 School of Music Concerto Competition as well as the 2021 Ferrando Piano Scholarship Awardee. Bryan is an active performer playing both flute and piano. His most recent performance was the Nielsen Flute Concerto with his alma mater orchestra in Spring 2022. Currently, he is also the principal flutist of the U of U Philharmonia where he leads the Philharmonia alongside with the Phil’s conductor, Dr. Robert Baldwin in this year’s Philharmonia Season. Bryan received his Bachelor and Masters of Music in Flute Performance from San Francisco State University. He is currently in the process of getting a DMA at the University of Utah in Flute Performance with a related field in both Piano and Orchestral conducting.

Broadway Hits Concert

November 19, 2023

"Some Enchanted Evening" A Night on Broadway

"I Couldn't Know Someone Less" from Daddy Long Legs
        by Paul Gordon
​"Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'" from Oklahoma!
        by Rodgers and Hammerstein
"Music of the Night" from Phantom of the Opera
        by Andrew Lloyd Webber
"Some Enchanted Evening" from South Pacific
        by Rodgers and Hammerstein
"Til There Was You" from Music Man
        by Meredith Wilson
"Something's Coming" from West Side Story
        by Stephen Sondheim
"I Don't Need a Roof" from Big Fish
        by Andrew Lippa
"It Takes Two" from Into the Woods
        by Stephen Sondheim
"Anyone Can Whistle" from Anyone Can Whistle
        by Arthur Laurents
"She Was There" from The Scarlet Pimpernel
        by Frank Wildhorn

"Sorry Grateful" from Company
        by Stephen Sondheim
"Move On" from Sunday in the Park with George
        by Stephen Sondheim
"You Matter to Me" from Waitress
        by Sara Bareilles
"Tell My Father" from Civil War
        by Frank Wildhorn
"Proud of Your Boy" from Disney Aladdin
        by Alan Menken
"The Wheel" from Tuck Everlasting
        by Chris Miller
"Lilly's Eyes" from The Secret Garden
        by Marsha Norman
"Make Them Hear You" from Ragtime
        by Terrence McNally
"Bring Him Home" from Les Misérables
        by Claude-Michel Schönberg

About the Musicians

Logan Bingham is a regular face at Christ United Methodist Church, where we conducts the Chancel Choir for the weekly Sunday Services. He is so excited to be putting together this night of Broadway music for this community!

Logan attended and is still currently attending the University of Utah where he worked on his BA in Choral Music Education and his MM in Choral Conducting and studied under Dr. Barlow Bradford, Dr. Jared Rawlings, and Dr. Emily Mercado. He also sang in the University of Utah Chamber Choir conducted by Dr. Barlow Bradford for 5 years, touring with the ensemble to locations like Taipei, Taiwan, Beijing, China, and Hawaii. 
Logan is the director of choirs at Bingham High School in South Jordan, UT where we conducts 5 choirs and teaches the musical theatre class. 
Logan has sung with many choral ensembles throughout the state of Utah, including the Utah Chamber Artists, The Utah Symphony Chorus, The Salt Lake Youth Honor Choir, The Salt Lake Choral Artists, The Salt Lake Vocal Artists, The Salt Lake Singers, and has participated in choirs with conductors Maestro Markus Stenz, Dr. Ryan Murphy, Dr. Lynne Gackle, Geoffrey Boers, Dr. Austin Thorpe, and many more. Logan's choral music experience has taken him to places like California, New York City, Hawaii, Asia, and many venues locally.

April Kerr recently moved back to Utah from Valencia, Spain, where she got her Masters in Scoring for Film, Television, and Video Games at Berklee College of Music.  She is a local actress at the Hale Centre Theatre in Sandy, currently performing in A Christmas Carol.  You can also find her singer-songwriter music on all streaming platforms, as well as multiple other albums and singles she has produced for other artists.  April is incredibly grateful to be performing tonight with her friends and sister!

​Cassandra Kerr found her passion for performing growing up with her musical family in Southern California. With her roots in choral music, she has performed in venues throughout the nation as well as internationally. She has had the privilege to work under the direction of Dr. Austin Thorpe, Dr. Brady Allred, Dr. Steve Meredith and Leanna Willmore. Favorite stage credits include: Sweeney Todd (Mrs. Lovett),
​Les Misérables (Madame Thenardier), The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Princess Puffer) and Into the Woods (Witch). Cassandra works in the Applied Behavior Analysis field as an RBT and oversees the Training Program for her company in the Utah Region. She is currently in rehearsals for Peter and the Starcatcher at Kensington Theatre Company. “If I cannot fly, let me sing.”

​David Martin​ is musical theatre teacher at Bingham High School.

Organ Spooktacular

October 15, 2023

The "Spooktacular" Music

Dr. Kenneth Udy
        Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565
                by J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
        Funeral March of a Marionette
                by Charles Gounod (1818-1893)
        Toccata from Suite Gothique
                by Léon Boëllmann (1862-1897)
        In the Hall of the Mountain King from Peer Gynt Suite No. 1
                by Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)

​Dr. Shelby Fisher
        Fantasia in G minor, BWV 542a
                by J. S. Bach
        Chapel of the Dead from Esquisses Byzantines
                by Henri Mulet (1878-1967)
        Rondo of the Ghouls
                by Denis Bédard (b. 1950)
        Danse Macabre
                by Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)

​Dr. Kenneth Udy and Dr. Shelby Fisher
        The Phantom of the Opera
                by Andrew Lloyd Webber (b. 1948)

About the Organists

Shelby Fisher began her musical career as a chorister in the initial class of the Choir School of the Cathedral of the Madeleine. Immediately following the acquisition of the new pipe organ in Libby Gardner Concert Hall at the University of Utah, the undergraduate degree in organ performance was re-established at the University of Utah. Shelby was awarded the first Bachelor of Music in Organ Performance by the University of Utah, studying under Kenneth Udy. Similarly, she pioneered and received the Master of Music degree in Organ Performance. She earned a second masters degree in education and taught in the Washington, D.C. area while studying organ with Edward Alan Moore at Catholic University.  Additional organ study has been with Robert Ridgell, Rulon Christiansen, and Andrew Unsworth. The Diapason, a leading international organ journal, recently published her article on French organist Jean Langlais. She earned a Doctor of Sacred Music from the Graduate Theological Foundation where she pursued groundbreaking research on the life of Tracy Y. Cannon and his connection with the evolution of LDS church music in the twentieth century.

Fisher now holds the position of Organist and Director of Music at Christ United Methodist Church in Salt Lake City and also serves as organist at Congregation Kol Ami. She has held various leadership positions in the American Guild of Organists and is currently the Subdean of the Salt Lake City chapter and serves as a National Chapter Support Specialist. She has played recitals at Libby Gardner Concert Hall, the Cathedral of the Madeleine, the Assembly Hall on Temple Square and the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption in San Francisco and has performed with the American West Symphony. Fisher maintains a successful teaching studio with award-winning piano and organ students of all ages and is a member of the music theory faculty at the Gifted Music School in Salt Lake City. A particular joy is accompanying the flute, viola, and violin performances of her three daughters.

​Kenneth Udy, a native of Salt Lake City, earned his DMA in organ performance from Claremont Graduate University and also studied at the University of Southern California and Utah State University. His organ teachers include Clay Christiansen, James Drake, Cherry Rhodes, and Robert Noehren. A practicing church musician since age 15, he has served since 1991 as Director of Music and Organist at Wasatch Presbyterian Church. He was also organist at Congregation Kol Ami for 25 years and frequently appears as a guest organist at the Salt Lake Tabernacle and with the Utah Symphony. He previously held posts at multiple churches in southern California.
 
In 2000 Dr. Udy joined the faculty of the University of Utah where he designed curriculum and helped implement the undergraduate and graduate degrees in organ performance. As University Organist he teaches organ majors and all organ coursework. Recently he assisted with the University's acquisition of a new Flentrop practice organ. In addition, he maintains a studio of private organ students.
 
He is active in the Salt Lake City Chapter of the American Guild of Organists as their current Treasurer. He has previously served as Chapter Dean, District Convener, Co-Chairman of the Bi-Regional AGO Convention in June 2003, and an ex-officio board member.
 
Dr. Udy is the author of Alexander Schreiner: The California Years, a biography on the early career of Mormon Tabernacle organist Alexander Schreiner, published by Harmonie Park Press of Detroit. This year his edition of six previously unpublished organ pieces by Alexander Schreiner will be released by Wayne Leupold Editions. He is currently developing an online reference database for organists, choir directors, and church musicians.