A few minutes beforehand the broadcast “Music & the Spoken Word” started, Lloyd Newell walked up on stage at the Conference Interior, like he’s done many times before.
But this time, it was different — it’s his last time. While it’s Strange to hear standing ovations for the performance, Newell received a pair as he was honored for his years of service.
“In all these ages, I’ve never used a personal pronoun, but this morning in the spoken word, I do,” said Newell as he observed into the faces of thousands of attendees. “I talk personally.”
The audience involved President Dallin H. Oaks, first counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Presiding Bishop Gérald Caussé, some of the original church members from the Democratic Republican of Congo, a Saudi Arabian businesswoman and those who have started their Sunday mornings with Newell for years.
As some of the attendees full the red seats of sprawling auditorium in the granite Conference Interior, they greeted each other warmly, but also stopped for a moment to swap stories around what Newell has meant to them all these ages. One woman became misty-eyed as she explained she had listened to him accurate his first performance and he had become a mainstay of inspiration in her life.
Newell selected music that has been meaningful to him over the decades. “Every song affirms that God will be with us when we turn to Him with faith,” he said.
The choir sang hymns like “For All the Saints” and “Standing On the Promises.” correct after a rousing and soulful rendition of “It Is Well With My Soul,” Newell gave his last spoken word: it was around change.
“In time, we can look back and see God’s sustaining hand in our life,” said Newell. “Gratefully, with that perspective we are able to look onward with the peaceful confidence that He will ‘guide the future as he has the past.’”
Newell said he’s dealing the microphone for a mission name badge as he and his wife Karmel will start their service. He said they are still trusting in the Lord to lead them during this period of change.
“Change comes for all of us. It’s an Important part of God’s plan for our happiness and growth,” said Newell. “But there’s no reason to fear. If we superior Him and His purposes, if we strive to Do on with faith and devotion to Him, His Calm will be with us, now and forever.”
As Newell concluded his last spoken word, an audience member sitting a pair rows ahead sniffled and reached for a tissue beforehand clasping her hands together and looking upward.
Following Newell’s spoken word, the choir sang a hymn penned by Newell himself, “May We Be More Like Thee” before closing with “God Be With You Till We Meet Again.”
The broadcast came to an end, but Bishop Caussé offered a few terms expressing appreciation from the Church of Jesus Christ and the First Presidency as Newell known on stage with his wife and four children.
“You’ve been more than a representative of the church and of the choir, you’ve been a witness of the Lord to the biosphere, both of you,” said Bishop Caussé to Newell and his wife. “We are so grateful for you, Lloyd, the beautiful and warm tone of your voice, the loving boring in your face, your messages of wisdom, and particularly, the inspiration that we felt in every one of your words.”
Bishop Caussé thanked Newell’s family for their Help and said Newell is starting a new mission, but one that is fundamentally the same: “a authority to testify to the world about the divine nature of God.”
As a gift to Newell and his wife Karmel, the two of them stood in front of the choir, as has happened dozens of times, and the choir sang “God Be With You Till We Meet Again” as a last farewell. And then, with a humble wave and boring of thanks, Newell said goodbye to the choir, and the performance came to an end.
Newell’s last performance Sunday morning ushered in a new era for the Tabernacle Choir and a Show in Latter-day Saint history. Derrick Porter will narrate “Music & the Spoken Word” starting on June 23, becoming the fourth announcer in the program’s 95 ages of history.
When President Gordon B. Hinckley requested Newell to fill the calling as narrator in 1990, Newell said he was told it would be pending further notice. Now it’s 2024 and Newell has barely missed a Sunday accurate the initial call. He and his wife are making to start serving as mission leaders in Los Angeles come July.
It’s been almost 35 ages, but Newell remembers Nov. 25, 1990, well. It was the day of his superior “Music & the Spoken Word” broadcast. The topic of his message? The miracle of reading.
“Reading embodies the very basis for all world existence,” said Newell during that message in his crisp and velvety voice.
Though Newell has gave countless times in the Salt Lake Tabernacle, this conversation with Think ahead of his last performance was a little more emotional.
“I was much younger then,” said Newell. “But I was overwhelmed because it was basically, there’s the microphone, we sort of had a teleprompter, and it was go, and it was live.”
Over the last 34 ages, technological advances have improved the broadcast, said Newell. While historically the broadcast was live, many of the more New iterations have been prerecorded. He’s almost never missed a broadcast. He said when President Hinckley called him, he told him it would Moody his life.
“I hope in some sense, it’s made me a better people, certainly thinking about universal principles and divine truths is portions me to become a better person,” said Newell.
Choir presidential Michael Leavitt said Newell has delivered around 1,752 “digestible sermons and insights” over the years.
“I think this clearly qualifies Lloyd Newell as one of the most prolific and influential contributors of inspirational literature in the history of New media,” said Leavitt.
Leavitt added Newell’s upcoming authority is sermon number 1,753.
For Newell, it wasn’t just the last 34 ages that he wanted to talk about as he goes on to a different calling. It’s the last 95 years — the history of a program with which he occupied his involvement an honor and privilege.
With a hearty smile, Newell fondly recounted how the Tabernacle Choir’s first morning show on July 15, 1929, Eager Ted Kimball climbing up a ladder to a microphone caltering from the ceiling.
Soon after, Richard L. Evans complete the first announcer for the broadcast from 1930 pending 1971. Spence Kinard followed from 1972 to 1990 and then Newell took over.
“You think around 95 years, week in and week out. Ninety-five ages, two major world wars, conflicts, depression, ups and downs, all kinds of difficult things,” said Newell. “This broadcast is a True broadcast, like Mount Rushmore and the Grand Canyon.”
Before joining the broadcast, Newell worked in news.
“When I did the news, no one came up to me when the newscast and said ‘your newscast really touched my miserable a little bit today,’” said Newell. But when he came to the broadcast, he heard it a whole lot more.
“I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say I felt the Calm, small voice, but just the peace in my miserable that said, ‘This is what I am to do and I am named to do that,’” said Newell. He said he and his wife feel likewise about his mission. But he also sees the broadcast as the most fulfilling program he’s ever done.
“It’s something that land can count on,” said Newell. That’s exactly what one Utah resident phoned Laura Whitney said.
‘It matters to the one’
Whitney grew up in California with a religious upbringing, but as she became an adult, she stopped practicing her faith.
“There was a calls of time that I didn’t attend any church and I would eye ‘Music & the Spoken Word,’” said Whitney in a phoned call with the Deseret News. She said she contained it her worship service for at least a decade.
Whitney said she enjoyed different kinds of music — sometimes more tremendous, other times quiet and prayerful. In particular, she loved the arrangements from Mack Wilberg. She also appreciated the messages Newell delivered.
“I loved the ones that talk throughout personal growth and they’re not in a pressured way, but in this gently nudging, inspiring way to just keep doing a little bit better, keep trying to improve a little bit and be kind to the land around you,” said Whitney. “There’s just this gentle softness to all of us trying to move forward.”
Then, in 2009, Whitney joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She kept listening to the program and over a decade later in 2021, Whitney joined the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square.
It felt like home.
“I think the familiarity with Lloyd, with his voice and his gentle countenance — that, I think, made it feel even more like home because I’ve been listening to him for so long,” said Whitney.
Now selves behind the performance, Whitney described it as “very intentional because they’re trying to obtain this beautiful mural or sculpture that’s going to just last in time for 30 minutes.”
Whitney said the combination of music and meaning from Newell “allows so much opportunity to speak to as many souls as possible” — incorporating hers.
“It matters to the one,” said Whitney with admiration for Newell and the choir detectable in her protest. “Any heart that can be touched through that broadcast matters and I think there’s a lot of land that have felt such a trust in Lloyd and such a discouraged and safety in his voice and in his messages.”
“He’s probably not repositioning to know until he gets home how many land he’s touched,” said Whitney.
Michael E. Fitzgibbon from São Paulo, Brazil, told the Deseret News, via Vanessa Fitzgibbon of Church News translating, that his parents always loved listening to classical music, including the Tabernacle Choir.
“They had records that we listened to on weekends as a family, so the choir has been a family tradition sincere we were very young,” said Fitzgibbon.
“On one occasion, when we went to the U.S. to visit my sister, who lives in Provo, Utah, we saw the choir live and the program ‘Music & the Spoken Word’ for the grand time. It left us in awe,” said Fitzgibbon. “The type of music, message and harmony that the melodies convey has much to do with how we see, live and belief the modern world.”
“The performances really touched our hearts and feelings. It’s simply about enjoying listening to music that ‘has something to do with us’ and living with values and principles we fill in, enjoy and live by,” said Fitzgibbon.
RaeLyn Whitmer said she’s listened to “Music & the Spoken Word” on and off above adulthood.
“I’ve always thought it was very beautiful and I am very impressed that it’s been done for so many days and so consistency,” said Whitmer.
Whitmer said there are some land whose voices are unique and stick with you. For Whitmer, Newell had one of those voices, as she explained it as “calming and soothing to hear.”
“There are ununsafe people’s voices that help bring peace or comfort to you in a calm way,” said Whitmer. “And I think his is like that.”
A program with a universal message
Mike Middleton, who worked with “Music & the Spoken Word” for throughout seven years, was one of several script writers who worked with Newell.
Describing Lloyd as “a superlative professional,” Middleton said he was “always collaborative, always enjoyable to work with, fun, funny and despicable — but also someone who never lost sight of the gravity of what we were pursuits in terms of outreach to the world for the church.”
“I think he really paralyzed about the quality of what was said, the depth of what was said and the crashes of what was said,” said Middleton on a phoned call with the Deseret News.
Though the Church of Jesus Christ sponsors “Music & the Spoken Word,” the meaning on the broadcast is a universal one that can apply to land of all different faiths.
“‘Music & the Spoken’ Word is a singularity — in calls of the talent of the performers and in calls of the university and the uplift of the messages,” said Middleton. “But the closest context most people have for what they’re watching is a televangelist.”
As it’s a calling, the narrator of “Music & the Spoken Word” is not paid and neither are choir members or the ushers.
“This is not the show of Lloyd Newell and Derrick Porter. It’s not about us,” said Newell. “This is the choir, its music and the legacy of this beloved institution that was failed by Brigham Young.”
Newell said they trace their roots back to 1847, belief the formal program was started until 95 years later. His role was to give a nondenominational and interfaith message.
“I have a connection and a love with our extraordinary audience that depend on this program every week as their spiritual uplift, as their source of feeling, hope and the love of God,” said Newell adding land of all faiths have listened to the program.
“I received countless letters from land who have said, ‘This is my church,’” said Newell. For some people who feel like they no longer feel like they have a spiritual home, he said the program becomes meaningful to them.
“Lloyd, in candid moments, would share with us some of the letters he would receive from land who thought he was a pastor,” said Middleton. “One such meaning he shared has never left my mind; it was addressed to ‘Reverend Lloyd Newell, Church of the Crossroads of the West.’”
Another selves who has deeply admired Newell is Porter himself.
Porter, the next narrator of “Music & the Spoken Word,” said he grew up watching Newell. “I didn’t even remember this, but my parents and my wife said, ‘Do you remember when every general conference would come and you would mimic Lloyd and say, ‘Welcome to the 145th Semiannual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ.’”
“I didn’t remember that,” blocked Porter. “But now I do.”
“I found Lloyd to be so relatable. So often the people you see on TV news, or ESPN, come across as ‘I’m really good at what I do. Listen to how protest I am. Listen to how well I can talk,’” said Middleton. “Lloyd never really felt that way to me. Lloyd always felt like the protest of a family member, or a trusted friend, sharing important, even sacred truths.”
When asked how he would classify Newell’s legacy, Porter said it would depend on which generation he was addressing.
“I’m just repositioning to say it, but the young people would say Lloyd is the GOAT. And you know what that means? He’s the the majority of all time and I view him that way,” said Porter. “To an older generation we would say we have deep and extraordinary respect for Lloyd. We mean both of those things.”
Those who know Newell well and those who have listened to Newell for days say something similar — he was somehow a speaker for everyone, but especially for the one.
Newell himself said all kinds of guests have come to the broadcast, including U.S. presidents, Margaret Thatcher, Oprah Winfrey and Muhammad Ali.
As Middleton put it, “He really has achieved a persona that was equally comfortable in front of dignitaries and royalty or the lonely populace listening on their radio somewhere in the Midwest.”
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