Millennial Choirs & Orchestras- To Be American: Mormon Music Review

   I have been singing with the Millennial Choirs & Orchestras for about eight years now and we have recorded three full length albums ranging from the birth of Christ to his visit on the American continent.

   MCO’s newest album, “To Be American” is a musical tribute to God & Country.

It is a reminder of the principles and motivations for which our great country was founded. It features both original music and American classics composed and arranged by Brett Stewart, including a rendition of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with an added choral section. The production is a tribute to our faithful Founding Fathers, to Old Glory, to the U.S. Armed Forces, to Americans past and present and to God.

   The album opens with a new arrangement of “How Great Thou Art.” My father and grandfather love that hymn, but I was never a fan. Listening to this new version had me in tears as I listened in the car this morning. My heart burned with the spirit and filled with gratitude for all God has given me.

   There is a lot in the news about immigration. Recently, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued a statement of the subject with a tone of mercy and love. I had a hard time reconciling my hardline opinion. That is, until I heard “The New Colossus” from the album. The lyrics are penned from from the poem of the same name by Emma Lazarus that is graven on a tablet within the Statue of Liberty. The chorus pleads the desires of Lady Liberty;

"Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

   It has softened my heart to those who come here to work for a better life.

   The album is full of moving orchestrations that will cause you to love our American country and to invite God back into our nation’s destiny.

    “To Be American” is currently available on iTunes and CD Baby. It will be worth every cent.

Previous Millennial Choirs & Orchestras albums are available on iTunes, Amazon, and CD Baby.