Mack J. Wilberg (born February 20, 1955) is an American composer, arranger, conductor, and choral clinician who has been the music director of the

Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, formerly known as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, is an American choir, acting as part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). It has performed in the Salt Lake Tabernacle for ov ...

(Choir) since 2008.

Early life and education

Wilberg was born in

Price A price is the (usually not negative) quantity of payment or compensation given by one party to another in return for goods or services. In some situations, the price of production has a different name. If the product is a "good" in the ...

and raised in Castle Dale, Utah. Wilberg learned how to play the piano at the age of four. He served as a

missionary A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

for

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The ch ...

(LDS Church) in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

where he was part of ''New Horizons'', a vocal group made up of LDS Church missionaries. Wilberg attended

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-d ...

(BYU) after finishing his missionary service, and earned a Bachelor of Music in piano performance and composition in 1979. He then completed graduate study in choral music at the

USC Thornton School of Music The USC Thornton School of Music is a private music school in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1884 only four years after the University of Southern California, the Thornton School is the oldest continually operating arts institution in Los An ...

, earning both Master of Music and

Doctor of Musical Arts The Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) is a doctoral academic degree in music. The DMA combines advanced studies in an applied area of specialization (usually music performance, music composition, or conducting) with graduate-level academic study in su ...

degrees, with a doctoral dissertation researching works written for chorus and piano.

Career

Wilberg began his career at BYU as a professor of music. Wilberg was a professor of music at BYU from 1984 to 1999, where he directed the

Men's Chorus A men's chorus or male voice choir (MVC) (German: ''Männerchor''), is a choir consisting of men who sing with either a tenor or bass voice, and whose music is typically arranged into high and low tenors (1st and 2nd tenor), and high and low bass ...

and Concert Choir. At BYU, he was a member of the American Piano Quartet, which toured internationally and commissioned many original works, with Wilberg creating many of its arrangements himself. He was the Choir's associate director and music director of the Chorale at Temple Square from May 1999 until his appointment as the Choir's director on March 28, 2008. Wilberg is a noted composer and arranger, and his works are published by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

. His arrangements have been performed at the funerals for

United States presidents The president of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States, indirectly elected to a four-year term via the Electoral College. The officeholder leads the executive branch of the federal government and ...

Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush. Wilberg's numerous choral compositions and arrangements are performed and recorded by choral organizations throughout the world. For many of the works he has written/arranged for the Choir, public performances have involved guests artists invited by the Choir, including

Renée Fleming Renée Lynn Fleming (born February 14, 1959) is an American soprano, known for performances in opera, concerts, recordings, theater, film, and at major public occasions. A recipient of the National Medal of Arts, Fleming has been nominated for ...

Frederica von Stade Frederica von Stade OAL (born June 1, 1945) is a semi-retired American opera singer. Since her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1970, she has performed in operas, musicals, concerts and recitals in venues throughout the world, including La Scala, th ...

Bryn Terfel Sir Bryn Terfel Jones, (; born 9 November 1965) (known professionally as Bryn Terfel) is a Welsh bass-baritone opera and concert singer. Terfel was initially associated with the roles of Mozart, particularly '' Figaro'', '' Leporello'' and '' ...

, the

King’s Singers The King's Singers are a British a cappella vocal ensemble founded in 1968. They are named after King's College in Cambridge, England, where the group was formed by six choral scholars. In the United Kingdom, their popularity peaked in the 19 ...

Audra McDonald Audra Ann McDonald (born July 3, 1970) is an American actress and singer. Primarily known for her work on the Broadway stage, she has won six Tony Awards, more performance wins than any other actor, and is the only person to win in all four act ...

, David Archuleta,

Natalie Cole Natalie Maria Cole (February 6, 1950 – December 31, 2015) was an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She was the daughter of American singer and jazz pianist Nat King Cole. She rose to success in the mid-1970s as an R&B singer with the h ...

, Brian Stokes Mitchell,

Kristin Chenoweth Kristin Dawn Chenoweth (; born Kristi Dawn Chenoweth; July 24, 1968)Kristin Cheno ...

Madeleine Albright Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright (born Marie Jana Korbelová; May 15, 1937 – March 23, 2022) was an American diplomat and political scientist who served as the 64th United States secretary of state from 1997 to 2001. A member of the Democratic ...

Walter Cronkite Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the ''CBS Evening News'' for 19 years (1962–1981). During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the mo ...

, and

Claire Bloom Patricia Claire Bloom (born 15 February 1931) is an English actress. She is known for leading roles in plays such as ''A Streetcar Named Desire,'' ''A Doll's House'', and '' Long Day's Journey into Night'', and has starred in nearly sixty film ...

. In 2006, he was awarded the Brock Commission from the American Choral Directors Association., Retrieved March 2016 Wilberg plans and conducts a weekly performance of Music & the Spoken Word.

Family

Wilberg's father was part owner of the family's

coal mine Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

but was killed in a 1964 mining accident, well before the 1984 fire. Wilberg and his wife, Rebecca, are the parents of four children. Rebecca also works with Wilberg as a vocal coach, and a member of the Choir School faculty of the Tabernacle Choir.

References

External links

Biography of Wilberg
from churchofjesuschrist.org
Biography of Wilberg
from ClassicalComposers.org

from The Tabernacle Choir organization 1955 births Latter Day Saints from California Living people American Mormon missionaries in South Korea Brigham Young University faculty USC Thornton School of Music alumni Brigham Young University alumni Singers from Utah Tabernacle Choir music directors 20th-century Mormon missionaries American male composers 21st-century American composers American music arrangers American choral conductors American male conductors (music) People from Emery County, Utah Latter Day Saints from Utah People from Price, Utah 21st-century American conductors (music) {{US-composer-20thC-stub