After the presentation on the Tabernacle renovation, all the attendees and their guests as well as all the choir members were invited to walk across temple square and enter the Tabernacle at the usual entrance.  From there, we filed down the left side of the seats and entered a door to the left of the rostrum.

I had my snap-shot camera's flash off.  When I turn it off the shutter is much slower.  Sometimes shots are really blurry that way because any movement can cause blurring.  Sorry for the occasional poor photo.


Just to the left of the door we entered was the Producer's Room where all performances are monitored for audio-visual quality.


From there we walked on down the hallway and turned right.  The rooms under the stage are divided like the choir seats with a Men's side and a Women's side.  The Producer's Room is on the Women's side.


Here we found the Performer's Lounge.  The sign says it's a dressing room used by guest artists and the announcer, Lloyd Newel, who does the "spoken word" part of the Sunday morning broadcast, "Music and the Spoken Word", the longest running show in broadcasting.


Here's the interior of the room.  Nice, isn't it?



  This hall connects the Men's side with the Women's side of the choir seating.


On the Men's side, just to the left, we found this placard from the Organ Historical Society proudly displayed.  It says the organ was built in 1948.  A more proper description would have said it was "rebuilt" in 1948.  The orginal organ was installed about the time the Tabernacle was built.

Here's a little piece about the organ from lds.org, "President Brigham Young asked Joseph Harris Ridges, who was born and raised near an organ factory in England, to build the first Tabernacle organ. Suitable timber was located and brought by volunteers from the Parowan and Pine Valley mountains, 300 miles south of Salt Lake City. In the beginning, the organ was powered by hand-pumped bellows, later by water power, and today by electricity. With improved techniques in organ construction, the instrument has been renovated and enlarged several times. Now comprising 11,623 pipes, the organ has 206 ranks of voices, and the console has 5 manuals, or keyboards. The Tabernacle organ is considered to be one of the finest organs in the world."


This sign says the workroom is used by two, full-time organ maintenance technicians.  It also says the room provides access to the organ chamber but we didn't get that far into the room.  Now I wish we had.  I would love to have seen underneath the pipes.  We did get to see the blower later.  You'll see those photos.


Here's the technician's room.  I suppose the small, low access door to the lower left of the work bench was the organ chamber door, but I'm not sure.


We went down a flight of stairs and immediately came upon the orrices of the Tabernacle Choir where, it says, the choir's artistic and administrative staff work.  That would probably be for the composer/directors and the choir president, etc.


Through the glass choir office doors the reception desk looks impressive.  They have all their many awards on display.


Speaking of choir directors, here are the choir directors for the Elijah Choir, our mission choir.  Elder and Sister Walker have many decades of experience between them.  Many of us have learned a great deal about music and voice from them.  Free voice lessons -- Woo Hoo!


Here we turned and went downstairs again to the lower levels.


The sign says we're about to go even lower, to " 'The Pit', an area excavated in the 1980s underneath the landscaped area between the Tabernacle and the AssemblyHall."  Above us are nothing but flower beds and concrete walks.  The rooms ahead turn out to be most interesting.


We descend into -- "The Pit."  Bwooo-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha!  I wonder if Boris Karloff is lurking nearby.


In this room, where the Teleprompter works, we saw a podium that looked identical to those from which we've seen some church broadcasts.  Behind it is a black curtain.  It looks like they do some broadcasting from here, but to be honest I don't really know what a Teleprompter is.  I think it's the person who inserts the nice photos, broadcast scripture references, video clips, etc. that support what speakers often say during general conferences and other broadcasts.


This recording room sign says this is a a "multi-purpose recording room used for rehearsals, recording film sound tracks, and sound effects.


We found the room to be large enough for quite a group.  I doubt the entire Tabernacle Choir would fit in here but there's room enough for a small orchestra.  Note the wooden floors and walls and baffles in the ceiling.  My experience tells me acoustic intstruments sound much better in rooms with wooden floors.


From here we enter the women's dressing room.  "Dressing rooms and wardrobe storage for female choir members plus sewing room where all dresses are made," so the sign says.


Our guide pointed the boxes over the dress hangers.  She said the men's dressing room doesn't have these.  Only the women have them -- because they're special!


One last look at the dressing room for the women choir members.  One more thing the guide told us men was to get a good look.  She said we'd never be permitted down here again.  Haha.


And up we go, back out of -- "The Pit."  See ya, Boris.  Don't wait up for us.


And down we went again for one of the more interesting parts of the tour.


Here are the stairs leading down to the blowers.   The above sign says, "This state-of-the-art enclosure houses the blowers for the Tabernacle Organ."


Honestly, the place looked and smelled like a U.S. Navy ship if you've ever been aboard one.  There were all sorts of pipes and tubing going who knows where.  These chamber doors have meat locker style handles on them to seal off the air chambers.


Lots of indicators tell information about what's going on inside, I'm sure.


On this chamber, they had the sealed door open so we could see the blowers inside.  All the air is flitered and sealed from leaking to the outside.  From here I could see the air went through baffles to the organ above.  Say the sound "Ssuusss" slowly out loud and you'll get a sense of an air valve opening and closing.


We went back up a flight of stairs to the choir members music boxes.  These boxes are like Post Office boxes you'll see in a minute.


It seemed the boxes just went on and on forever.  We'll get behind them after a while to see what's there.


There was a Rostrum storage area for the modular stage.


The stage can be reconfigured for chairs to seat general authorities for a conference, a stage for an orchestra, or for other type performance needs.  Here, underneath, is the storage area for changing the rostrum's configuration.


We were told these are coverings for the chairs general authorities sit in.  You can also see the low, decorative wooden wall they sit behind.


And away in this direction also was the Men's dressing area.


Notice the men who sing in the Tabernacle Choir don't have the little boxes over their clothes hangers like the women.  Can you imagine cleaning all those suits?  I've met the man who does cleaning for the choir.  His name is Mr. Jardine (pronounced "JAR-dine" as in dining out).  He's quite an interesting guy.


Younger choir members have to hang their suits on these rows of hangers.  Only the older choir members get their own, personal clothes closets.


Here's a sample of what one choir member wears.


And here the choir members get instructions on what to wear on certain occasions.


Outside the dressing rooms I noticed this seating chart so each choir member knows where to sit.


This sign for the instrument lift, says it's a "Lift for transporting musical instruments and Rostrum modules from this level up to the stage of the auditorium."


Here's the lift door the above sign is attached to.


Now that we've seen the outside of the choir members' music boxes, we're about to enter the library where we'll see the inside.  The sign informs us it's a "storage area for more than 1.4 million pieces of choir and orchestra music."


And this sign says, "Please Turn In 11 May 2008" followed by sheet numbers.


The librarians have their work cut out for them.  They have to handle thousands of pieces of music for each performance.


No wonder their sign tells nearly 400 choir and orchestra members, "I can only please one person a day.  Today is not your day.  Tomorrow doesn't look good either."  hahahaha


From here you can see the back side of the choir members' music boxes as promised.


And here's where they store the music.


If you've ever worked in a hospital or doctor's office, you know how they use these type shelves for document storage.  You only need one isle at a time to access the paperwork.  The space between the shelving is created with the cranks in the above photo.


At our final area I read the sign as I entered and found it was called the "Horseshoe Area multi-purpose room used for Choir warm-up and rehearsal."  I was informed the room has "... full audio-visual capability for production meetings" and that it was "Named for it's shape."


We immediately noticed it's quite a large room.


Many of us also noticed the food prepared for us all.  How nice.


I'm sure I know what the ladies are thinking right now.  They're thinking, "Why do they always have to photograph me while I'm eating!"


I caught a photo of President Peterson and thanked him.  He said, "Did you get my hat?"  So, of course I had to take another photo and get the famous hat.


These water fountains were so interesting I could resist taking a shot of them.


As we left the horseshoe area, this pleasant guide, one of many, greeted us all with a smile and gave directions on how to exit.


As we all exited the building's  sub-basement, I was impressed at the size.  I doubt any of us had any idea there were that many rooms two floors below ground level under the great Salt Lake Tabernacle.