Dan White planned to spend the summer in

Salt Lake City, then return north to finish a degree in music and

biochemistry at Eastern Oregon University.

Then he landed a spot in the Utah Opera’s chorus.

And then his boss suggested he audition for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

“I said, ‘Oh, OK,'” says White, 26, a 1999 graduate of Baker High School.

Though he’s finished credit requirements for a music degree and

has sang in choirs since high school, White didn’t think he had much of

a chance to join the prestigious choir.

“Twenty-five-year-olds don’t get in,” he says.

But he visited the choir web site anyway, and found out auditions were scheduled for the next week.

“Audition” seems too simple of a term to describe the six-month,

three-phase process it takes to become one of the 360 choir members.

“It’s the hardest I’ve ever done in my life,” says White, whose

mother, Dolores White, and father, Gary White, both live in Baker City.

First, there are requirements: prospective members must be

active members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, be

recommended by the bishop of their local congregation, live within 100

miles of downtown Salt Lake City and be between the ages of 25 and 55.

White’s audition process started in July when he submitted an

application/resume and an a cappella recording of vocal exercises that

demonstrate a singer’s range and agility for different styles.

“Just to test you and see what you’re capable of,” he says.

Then he waited for a month.

“I was told over 300 people sent in CDs for that,” he says.

He heard that he’d passed in September, and the pool of candidates had been whittled to 110.

Then, in October, came a three-hour test on music theory and

musicianship (ear training) that involved 300 questions of recognizing

different music notes.

“And they don’t replay the notes,” he says. “That was the hardest music test I’ve ever taken in my life. It was intense.”

It takes a score of 80 percent or better to pass the test and move to the next round.

White passed, and next faced a personal audition in front of the

music director, Craig Jessop, and associate director Mack Wilberg.

Singers must show up with two prepared pieces and be ready to perform a song they’d never seen before (called sight reading).

“They told you to get your sight reading skills up,” White says.

So he practiced that for nearly an hour every day before the audition.

Then it was time to sing.

“I felt OK – but I was shaking,” he says.

The judges, though, take nerves into account when hearing auditions.

“They don’t want to see you fail,” White says. “They totally encourage you, but it’s hard.”

He sang, and went home.

“Then you wait for two weeks and get a letter,” he says.

His letter bore good news, but the process is far from over.

On Jan. 8, White starts singing with the Temple Square Chorale, a training choir that meets Thursday nights for three months.

He must also attend Choir School on Tuesdays to study music theory.

In April, White will take his place among the Mormon Tabernacle

Choir and begin a schedule of Thursday and Sunday rehearsals that are

open to the public. The Sunday performance culminates with the

broadcast of “Music and the Spoken Word,” a weekly radio and television

program carried on the Hallmark Channel.

“Every Sunday is technically a concert,” White says.

Members are expected to participate 80 percent of the time, and it’s all volunteer.

But White says everything – the grueling audition, the

rehearsals, the concerts, putting his college degree on hold – is worth

it when he hears the choir’s voices fill the hall.

“It makes it all worth it, listening to that.”

On the Net:

www.mormontabernaclechoir.org .