a quote from the late President Thomas S. Monson<\/a>, former president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, during her personal gospel study.<\/p>\n\u201cHe leaves the pictures unpainted and the music unsung and the problems unsolved, that man might know the joys and glories of creation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Going forward in our rehearsals, Fjeldsted said, it was necessary to put in the work, to be exact in our playing, so that we might create something as magnificent as we were capable \u2014 perhaps even more so. <\/p>\n
At each rehearsal, Fjeldsted\u2019s passion for creating intertwined with her belief in what we were creating. <\/p>\n
There were moments \u2014 like the lush orchestral interlude that follows when Christ reveals himself to the disciples after his resurrection \u2014 when the conductor\u2019s eyes would well up with tears. <\/p>\n
\u201cCan you imagine being in that room?\u201d she asked, her voice wavering, during a rehearsal at the Christian Life Center Church in Layton.<\/p>\n
I had my own emotional moments during rehearsals \u2014 usually whenever Peter, sung by tenor Will Perkins, would sing of his grief and guilt over denying Christ three times. But I generally just put my head down and tried to focus on my own part in this creation. <\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/AUSACGDHJVDWDMM62XQOLR5SLM.JPG\")
The Davis County Interfaith Choir and Orchestra perform during a full dress rehearsal of “Lamb of God” at the Salt Lake Tabernacle in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, March 17, 2026. | Jeffrey D. Allred for the Desere <\/p>\n
So it really shouldn\u2019t have come as a surprise to me that a week after my performances, when I flew to New York City to see Gardner himself conduct a milestone performance of \u201cLamb of God\u201d at the Metropolitan Opera House, I wept through most of it. <\/p>\n
But I was surprised \u2014 and in the best possible way. <\/p>\n
\u2018I had no idea how incredible this piece was\u2019<\/p>\n
As I got to know Fjeldsted a little better over the course of six weeks, I learned that the spiritual tone she set at each rehearsal wasn\u2019t specific to \u201cLamb of God.\u201d <\/p>\n
Her professional music career emerged relatively later in her life, as she was approaching her 60s. Now in her 70s, Fjeldsted, who is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and directs the choirs at Westminster University in Salt Lake City, approaches her entire career with a deepened faith shaped by decades of living.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody knows what I believe,\u201d she told me during a phone call in mid-March. \u201cAnd I\u2019ve actually had some students \u2026 who have dropped out because they don\u2019t like the way I believe.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, everything revolves around bringing the spirit,\u201d she continued with emotion. \u201cHonestly, that\u2019s why I\u2019m doing what I\u2019m doing.\u201d <\/p>\n
The conductor firmly believes this is work God has called her to do. <\/p>\n
Fjeldsted, who is the daughter of the late Don Ripplinger, a longtime associate conductor for the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, told me she came to realize this when she was singing with the choir on a tour throughout Russia and Eastern Europe in 1991. <\/p>\n
A mom of four, Fjeldsted had been waiting for her youngest to go into school so she could take a job teaching junior high to earn a little extra income. But while on that choir trip, she was blindsided by an impression that she needed to go back to school and get her graduate degree. <\/p>\n
She was genuinely shocked \u2014 school was far from her favorite thing. <\/p>\n
But throughout this next phase of life, in following that prompting, she balanced higher education with raising her kids. She only did schoolwork when her kids were in school or bed so that she didn\u2019t take time away from them. <\/p>\n
In 2009, she graduated with a doctorate degree. She was almost 53. <\/p>\n
That unconventional path, Fjeldsted believes, prepared her for \u201cLamb of God.\u201d <\/p>\n
When she heard Gardner\u2019s work for the first time in 2016, she said she was \u201cdumbfounded.\u201d She was especially moved by the character of Martha, who pleads for healing and understanding following the death of her brother, Lazarus, in the song \u201cMake Me Whole.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI had no idea how incredible this piece was,\u201d she told me. \u201cI\u2019ve always loved Martha, and I\u2019ve always felt like she needed to be cared for. And Rob has done that in this piece. He has embodied her remarkable faith. … The melody of her song has such an arc to it, and it seems to be the shape of my faith.\u201d <\/p>\n
Thanks to all of her studies, which gave her new skills as a conductor, Fjeldsted wasn\u2019t just listening to \u201cLamb of God\u201d when she heard it for the first time. She was actively noting the ebbs and flows of the music and the characters \u2014 envisioning how she might conduct it for a group of nearly 500 singers and musicians.<\/p>\n
Since 2017, she\u2019s helmed the Davis Interfaith Choir & Symphony\u2019s annual performances of \u201cLamb of God.\u201d To date, she\u2019s conducted the oratorio all the way through, from start to finish, at least 25 times. <\/p>\n
She was initially concerned that the repetition would start to make it all feel routine. But to her delight, it feels exciting and new each time.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/SQTCLZYGFNA7HBCDUZDQMSP6F4.JPG\")
Jane Fjeldsted conducts the Davis County Interfaith Choir and Orchestra’s production of “Lamb of God” during a full dress rehearsal at the Salt Lake Tabernacle in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, March 17, 2026. | Jeffrey D. Allred for the Desere <\/p>\n
This year, though, brought some particularly special moments. On March 17, during our dress rehearsal at the Salt Lake Tabernacle, we received a brief devotional and words of encouragement from Elder Gary E. Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and \u201cThe Forgotten Carols\u201d composer Michael McLean. <\/p>\n
But it was on March 19 \u2014 the night before our first of two performances \u2014 that brought the biggest surprise of all: A visit from the man who created \u201cLamb of God.\u201d<\/p>\n
A surprise visit from Rob Gardner <\/p>\n
Gardner was in Provo, Utah, on that Thursday in March, working with the BYU choir that would fly out to New York later in the month to accompany Broadway performers for the \u201cLamb of God\u201d performance at the Metropolitan Opera House \u2014 a milestone event that developed through a partnership with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. <\/p>\n
He\u2019d spent hours with the students, helping them to shape their sound and understand the heart of his piece: what can be learned from the relationships between Christ and those who walked alongside him.<\/p>\n
In the evening, he traveled an hour north to the Latter-day Saint church in Kaysville where we were having our final rehearsal together after six weeks.<\/p>\n
A few minutes before 9 p.m., as the rehearsal was about to end, Gardner walked in and surprised the large group of roughly 500 singers and musicians. He stepped onto the conductor\u2019s podium, not to lead or give instruction as he had a few hours before at BYU, but just to talk to us. <\/p>\n
\u201cThank you so much for being a part of this, and for giving of your talents and volunteering and just being there for this amazing performance that happens every year,\u201d he told us. \u201cIt just warms my heart … to just know that this work and this music means enough to you to give up your time to be able to share it with other people.\u201d <\/p>\n
To my mild dismay, after Gardner spoke to us for a couple of minutes, someone suggested that we perform for him the 36 measures from \u201cI Am the Resurrection\u201d (an early number in \u201cLamb of God\u201d) that we use for our encore. <\/p>\n
This powerful passage comes after Christ has raised Lazarus from the dead. As the orchestral music intensifies, the 365 choir voices ring out in praise: <\/p>\n
I am the resurrection<\/p>\n
I am the resurrection and the life<\/p>\n
He that believeth in me<\/p>\n
Though he were dead<\/p>\n
Yet shall he live<\/p>\n
Yet shall he live!<\/p>\n
This is one of my favorite parts in \u201cLamb of God\u201d \u2014 to play and to listen to. But the idea of having to unexpectedly play this with the man who created it just a few feet away from me did not strike me as particularly fun. <\/p>\n
Gardner laughed when I told him this during a phone call a week later. And he assured me that in that moment, the farthest thing from his mind was being critical or passing judgment. It was while listening to us perform, the composer told me, that he came to understand his purpose in being at our rehearsal that night: to listen. <\/p>\n
That Thursday night after rehearsal, he stayed and listened to every person who approached him, learning about their connections to \u201cLamb of God,\u201d the roles they play in the story and how it has affected their lives.<\/p>\n
Gardner told me that in the early days of \u201cLamb of God,\u201d compliments were hard for him. He\u2019d deflect or find a way to change the subject. But he quickly came to learn that wasn\u2019t the best way to go about things, and that he needed to move past his discomfort. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t totally understand it, but it matters to people when something is a part of their lives and it means something to them to meet the people that are involved with it, and to get to just express their gratitude,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Gardner says he values this one-on-one connection \u2014 especially as a conductor who is typically on stage leading hundreds of people at once.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all just want to be heard,\u201d Gardner told me. \u201cAnd so that\u2019s what I hope \u2018Lamb of God\u2019 even does for the characters, is that finally Martha is heard and not just judged, and finally Thomas is heard and not judged. Because Jesus heard both of them.\u201d <\/p>\n
The day after his surprise visit, Gardner flew from Salt Lake City to New York to prepare for the massive undertaking of conducting \u201cLamb of God\u201d at the Lincoln Center, one of the most prestigious performing arts centers in the world. <\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/WBPMSDN2VNBCPMGOALZJWCMRMA.jpg\")
Composer and conductor Rob Gardner speaks at a reception before the “Lamb of God” concert at The Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center in New York City on Monday, March 30, 2026. Also pictured are Elder Allen D. Hanie, General Authority Seventy and President of the United States Northeast Area, and Elder David Marriott, an Area Seventy, both of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints <\/p>\n
A week later, I made the same trip to see it all come to life. <\/p>\n
Seeing \u2018Lamb of God\u2019 in New York City <\/p>\n
Gardner told me he was initially reluctant when he was a 19-year-old missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ in Bordeaux, France, and his president asked him to write a 15-minute piece about the life of Jesus. <\/p>\n
Once he wrote it, though, it never left him. <\/p>\n
He told himself he\u2019d one day write a piece that just focused on Holy Week. That idea lingered over the years as he studied business at BYU and scored other musicals. But it was two months into a yearlong graduate program at USC for film scoring that he had the thought to make the story about those who knew Christ in those final days. And once that idea formed, Gardner leapt into action. <\/p>\n
The composer booked a recording session in June 2010 with the London Symphony Orchestra \u2014 his dream orchestra that played on the original soundtracks for \u201cStar Wars\u201d and \u201cHarry Potter.\u201d<\/p>\n
And then he dropped out of grad school to finish writing the music.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m the kind of person, once I get an idea, I need to do it,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I felt that urgency.\u201d <\/p>\n
From there, Gardner said, \u201cLamb of God\u201d took on a life of its own pretty much immediately, with groups starting to perform it by the following Easter. Last year, the composer told me, there were over 100 performances of \u201cLamb of God\u201d within a two-month period \u2014 including in Taiwan and Romania. <\/p>\n
Now, \u201cLamb of God\u201d has had one of its biggest moments since the concert film that had a theatrical release during the 2021<\/a> Easter season.<\/p>\nOn Monday, March 30, as I sat 12 rows away from the massive Lincoln Center stage teeming with New York-based musicians, singers from BYU and Broadway performers, one thing was immediately obvious to me: Gardner\u2019s passion for \u201cLamb of God\u201d has not diminished in the 15-plus years since writing it. <\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/JMOY3E62U5CXFMJKZCMZNENBCQ.png\")
Rob Gardner conducts a performance of “Lamb of God” at The Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center in New York City on Monday, March 30, 2026. | Skyler Sorenson <\/p>\n
Watching Gardner conduct, it was clear he still believes in this music. <\/p>\n
His conducting style was energetic and intense. He sometimes seemed to throw his whole body into the music. His arms would fervently wave up and down as he would demand more sound from the choir or orchestra. Most of the time, he was mouthing every single word along with the choir. <\/p>\n
Having just done two performances of \u201cLamb of God\u201d the week before, this music was still very fresh in my mind. For the first couple of songs, I was actually a bit distracted as I found myself watching the violinists and comparing their style or way of playing a particular passage to my own.<\/p>\n
But all of that nitpicking went away when Joy Woods \u2014 who recently starred in Broadway\u2019s \u201cGypsy\u201d alongside Audra McDonald \u2014 took the stage to give voice to Martha. <\/p>\n
When I was performing \u201cLamb of God,\u201d I did my best to keep my emotions at bay. Otherwise, I figured, I ran the risk of my tears blurring my eyesight and then I would have a hard time reading the notes. So for the most part (there were a few exceptions), I concentrated on my own music and tried not to get swept away in the story. <\/p>\n
But now, being on the receiving end of \u201cLamb of God\u201d in New York City, it was as if I had been given formal permission to let out all of those emotions. <\/p>\n
I cried as Woods, playing the role of Martha, sang of having faith in her Savior but desiring more understanding. She sang \u201cMake Me Whole\u201d with such convincing power that people actually started clapping and cheering when the song was over \u2014 something I\u2019ve never seen happen during a \u201cLamb of God\u201d performance, since applause is typically held until the end.<\/p>\n
I also cried when Alex Joseph Grayson \u2014 who recently finished a run in the Tony Award-winning musical \u201cThe Outsiders\u201d \u2014 brought a touching tenderness to \u201cSometime We\u2019ll Understand,\u201d the penultimate number that is sung by the disciple Thomas after he isn\u2019t present to witness the Savior\u2019s resurrection with the other apostles. <\/p>\n
Not now, but in the coming years<\/p>\n
It may not be when we demand<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll read the meaning of our tears<\/p>\n
And there, sometime, we\u2019ll understand<\/p>\n
Those words from \u201cLamb of God\u201d have been running through my mind in the days since seeing it. Throughout the oratorio, the apostle Peter sings of knowing Christ. Thomas sings of his desire to see Christ. John sings of hearing him. <\/p>\n
I was reminded to trust him. <\/p>\n
The word at the heart of \u2018Lamb of God\u2019<\/p>\n
At the end of the performance, Gardner faced the full house of roughly 3,800, his blue dress shirt soaked with sweat, and bowed with the hundreds of people who had helped bring this milestone moment to life. <\/p>\n
The standing ovation lasted for at least two minutes, with each soloist getting their own vigorous round of cheers and applause.<\/p>\n
As people started filing out of the theater, Santino Fontana, who voices Prince Hans in \u201cFrozen\u201d and played the role of John in \u201cLamb of God,\u201d told me he hadn\u2019t expected that kind of reaction from the audience.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s going to take me some time to metabolize it,\u201d he said just minutes after the performance, which marked his Metropolitan Opera House debut. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty epic. It just felt epic and very moving, and the audience was incredibly present through all of it.\u201d <\/p>\n
Broadway actor Norm Lewis, who played the role of Pontius Pilate, had been visibly emotional and wiping away tears during the standing ovation. After the show, Lewis \u2014 who is well known for starring as the first Black phantom in \u201cPhantom of the Opera\u201d on Broadway \u2014 stood outside of the Lincoln Center hugging a few of the BYU singers. He praised their sound and compared Gardner\u2019s \u201cLamb of God\u201d to a Mass. <\/p>\n
Even as Gardner has made changes to \u201cLamb of God\u201d over the years, including adding a few songs and fleshing out some of the characters\u2019 perspectives, he said the one word that inspired him to write it continues to be at the center of it: hope. <\/p>\n
As I sat in the Lincoln Center, letting the emotions of the story wash over me, I was reminded of the joy of worshipping through song. It brought me back to that February rehearsal at St. Olaf Catholic Church, when Fjeldsted told us that making this music was a divine privilege.<\/p>\n
I realized that if I could have even the smallest of roles in making someone feel as uplifted as I did that Monday night, it was a blessing to not take for granted. <\/p>\n
And I can\u2019t wait to have that chance again.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/W64K4UH3GFCKRDP2D4K7N5PVHU.JPG\")
Deseret News staff writer Lottie Johnson performs in the Davis County Interfaith Choir and Orchestra’s production of “Lamb of God” during a full dress rehearsal at the Salt Lake Tabernacle in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, March 17, 2026. | Jeffrey D. Allred for the Desere <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published: April 4, 2026, 9:05 p.m. MDT At the start of a two-hour rehearsal, where roughly 90 musicians…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,17318],"class_list":{"0":"post-185911","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-headlines","10":"tag-new-york-news","11":"tag-news-feed-national"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/3QJSPZP7Y5CXPLGAXL3SVVNV6A.JPG\")
Jane Fjeldsted conducts the Davis County Interfaith Choir and Orchestra’s production of “Lamb of God” during a full dress rehearsal at the Salt Lake Tabernacle in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, March 17, 2026. | Jeffrey D. Allred for the Desere <\/p>\n