I am taking the liberty to express my dissatisfaction, sadness, grief, and frustration at the resignation tonight of the music director of the Tabernacle Choir, Dr. Craig Jessop. Evan won't really care about this later on, but hey, lets be real here, technology will be such that this will be archaic and maybe not even available when he is ready - sorry to be so cynical.
Anyway, Dr. Jessop was mysteriously missing from Sunday's broadcast and I mentioned to my family how unusual that was. I wondered if he was ill or had to leave out of town on an emergency, etc. After tonight's rehearsal, which was again mysteriously conducted by Dr. Wilberg instead of Dr. Jessop, he came to the end of the rehearsal and acknowledged that he had to miss Sunday, but didn't give a reason, and then read his letter of resignation as music director of the choir. He gave the lame reasoning of "wanting to spend more time with his family", but that in actuality is code for "I was forced out" or "sick" or something very serious. Why couldn't he have told us the real reason. Is it because of the new First Presidency? Did President Monson have a problem with Dr Jessop and the first chance he got he fired him? I do not want to think of our prophet doing something like that. Is he or his wife very ill? Why would someone want to leave the choir? Isn't it the ultimate in jobs for a choral conductor? What could be better than this? Even being director of music at a university couldn't be better. If it was, then Dr. Wilberg would have gone back to BYU. I feel like he died. All the choir members were stunned - in total shock. No one expected this at all. He is only 57 years old. I thought he would be conducting the choir until 62 years old at least. I just hope it isn't something that made him ineligible to be conductor anymore (like leaving the Church or something like that.) Dr. Jessop is really one of the most incredible men I have ever met. He has an incredible spirit about him - it (his spirit) is constantly testifying the divinity of our Savior. You just have to look at him and know that the Gospel of Christ is true. He had so much strength and energy. When things would get bad, I knew that he would petition the Lord to help us and we would always make it through. He never showed his personal exhaustion during a long, stressful rehearsal. He also knew how to "reprove betimes with sharpness...and then show forth afterwards an increase of love". Anyway, I will probably delete this post when I have processed this some more, but until then, I will try to figure out how to feel about this.
14 comments:
wow, I don't know what to say....
This is such sad news :(
-Lesley
I am in total shock and you should never delete this post! Be proud of having an opinion and it is more than acceptable to be angry from time to time. Even Christ got angry (remember the temple?) LOL
Sorry, That was kind of inappropriate.
I can't believe it. This does not sound like a retirement at all. If it was for those kind of reasons, then you would have been able to plan a party/tribute to him for his dedicated and inspiring service. This has conspiracy written all over it. Plus he didn't even come in person to say goodbye... weird.
His actions totally seem like he was fired. Not even a traditional 2 weeks notice. Maybe he had a meeting after the rehersal on thursday and was told to never come back?
Gosh- now my imagination has gone into overdrive.
He was always such a wonderful man who seemed to love his work. He revolutionized the Choir and brought it into the 21st century.
I remember when we went to see you sing the Passion (I can't remember which one, but it had no winds or strings- I can't remember, but it was when you had just gotten into the choir, less than a year), Any who- we got there kind of late and couldn't find seats in the Assembly Hall in the balcony, and Craig Jessop came up to me and offered us seats in the back with the big-wigs like him. It was amazing and the best seats in the entire place. He was so generous and didn't have to do that at all, but he was kind and thoughtful. He had no idea who we were, but he was kind to us nonetheless. What sweet, christ-like human being. He will be missed.
I totaly remember that! He was so nice to us.
I'm sad.
-Lesley
Something isn't right. I hope it will all make sense in the upcoming weeks....such as a new position in the church or something Good like that.
I don't want to think anything negative.
By the way, you type so FAST! I saw your WPM score! Rock on!
Mine was a whopping 32!!!!!
-Lesley
Well, I got a 74.
But then again I do have loads of practice.
I think your typing speed ebbs and flows.
Andrea!!! I love your rockin' music!
No Thomas? LOL
I tried to add Thomas, but it isn't available on Playlist.com. I also tried to figure out how to add it myself, but the only way I found was to record it on a voice recorder and turn it into a .wav file and then maybe it would work. Way too complicated!
Yup, way too complicated-
The Thomas icon is enough :)
Happy Easter!
Where's your tag Andrea?!
I said I would hunt you down :)
Yeah Andrea where's your tag! :)
Just an update on Dr Jessop - he is now the chairman of the music department at Utah State University. I mentioned in this post that I thought he might go to a university, but I didn't think it would be fulfilling. I guess I was wrong. In fact, I think that it is even more a slap in the face to the choir as he obviously was just tired of us and needed something new. That isn't what you want from your leader. You would hope they would be loyal and dedicated until the end, which I guess I expected would be till death.
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