Listen to the "All In" podcast Easter episode with Rob Gardner here or in the player below.
Last Easter, the All In podcast celebrated Easter by inviting Latter-day Saint composer Rob Gardner to share the inspiration behind his oratorio, Lamb of God. For many, the cancellation of this year’s Lamb of God performances due to COVID-19 could mean a loss of tradition—if it weren’t for a live Lamb of God sing-along.
On Easter Sunday, Gardner’s beloved oratorio with its original cast will be streamed from start to finish with on-screen subtitles displaying the lyrics. So, regardless of whether Lamb of God is something you and your family look forward to each year or you have always wanted to attend a performance but have never had the chance, you can join in this year's performance.
“Perhaps you'll decide to sing every word yourself, or maybe you'll assign members of the household each part and perform for one another. Or maybe you'll just sit and listen, watch and read along,” Gardner’s website explains. “However you decide to join in, you can know that there are others around the world singing along with you, lifting their voices and their hearts with yours and sharing in the hope and beauty of the Easter message.”
For those who read music, the vocal-part-only scores are also available to download for free.
The first stream will begin at 11 a.m. MDT, but will be followed by two additional opportunities to watch at 3 p.m. MDT and 7 p.m. MDT. Those who wish to participate can watch on YouTube Live or Facebook Live.
On the All In podcast, Gardner shared his answer to the question, “What does it mean to you to be ‘all in’ the gospel of Jesus Christ?” by explaining what the people in the story of Christ’s life, the Savior’s friends, have taught him.
"I'm going to answer this in maybe a bizarre way. But I would say, for me to understand what it is to be all in, we have to acknowledge that sometimes we're not...sometimes we are going to think that we're not. Whatever Peter’s motivations or reasons were for denying, or whatever Thomas's feelings were, or Martha's or Mary's, in those moments, they felt like they demonstrated that they weren't all in, but they were. Their hearts were there. And I think in order to really understand being all in, we kind of have to understand that we're all nuanced and complicated. And that to be all in for me, simply says that we're all going to stumble, we're all going to have doubts and probably severe doubts if we ever think too hard about anything. And the line just comes back to me from ‘Sometime We'll Understand,’ that we just, ‘Though dark thy way, still sing and praise.’ Because things are going to get dark, they're going to be hard. They're also going to be bright and beautiful. This world is not supposed to just be dark, it's supposed to be beautiful and bright as well. But we will have those times. And in those times, we have to just sometimes surrender and just continue to sing and praise."