Lessons From My 2026 BYU Women’s Conference Experience
When I studied with Bonnie Goodliffe, she taught me about being prepared. She liked to practice at a venue at the same time she would be performing, and in the same clothes she would be wearing for that performance. One day she shared a story about preparing to accompany the Tabernacle Choir at a rehearsal. As she went through a mental checklist of anything she might possibly need, she realized that while the choir was singing to an orchestral accompaniment of one of the pieces, she might want to throw in the organ accompaniment, too, since she had it. This was a very good last-minute decision, because the choir started rehearsing before the orchestra’s call time, and the director decided to start with that piece! Instead of having to say, “Um, that’s an orchestra accompaniment, and I can’t accompany it for practice,” she was able to pull out the accompaniment that she just happened to bring, and rehearsal went smoothly.
I have had the wonderful opportunity to play for BYU Women’s Conference several times over the years. One of their traditions is to have the 12,000+ attendees sing hymns together as prelude with the organist accompanying. (You can read about my first time playing here.) A couple of years ago, as I was ready to play for the Wednesday evening session, I was told that the presenters were stuck in traffic and would be about fifteen minutes late. This necessitated adding several additional hymns to the prelude, which were chosen by those in charge, and which I was expected to play as soon as they were given to me, with barely enough time to add them to my iPad playlist, and without any time at all to prepare. Fortunately, they were hymns that I was familiar with, and I had programmed registrations that would work with them. All went well, and the attendees weren’t any the wiser.
This week, I was excited to play again for the Wednesday evening session(s). As organists, we are told not to worry about playing prelude, that the congregational singing is sufficient. So I prepared the three congregational prelude pieces, the opening hymn, a congregational prelude piece for after the intermission, and one long-ish postlude piece. In the past I also prepared prelude pieces and multiple postlude pieces, but I just didn’t feel the need to “prove” myself this year by being an over-achiever, so I just prepared what had been asked. I did think about choosing additional prelude pieces or another postlude piece, but honestly, life has been heavy lately, and I didn’t see the need for the needless extra work, so I only prepared the five congregational accompaniments and one postlude piece, James Kasen’s It Is Well with My Soul.
I should have listened to Bonnie’s advice!
Things went really well with the congregational prelude pieces and the opening hymn. I was thinking I’d use the short intermission break to drink a protein drink and visit the restroom before the second congregational prelude hymn was scheduled to begin, but the floor manager came up and sat by me towards the end of the talk. He told me that he needed me to start my postlude as soon as she said, “Amen.” I was thinking he meant at the very end of the evening, but no, he meant I needed to start postlude in about five minutes! I had only prepared the one piece, so I knew I’d be pinch-hitting later, but I went up and started on my cue. When it ended, I had a little bit of time, or so I thought. He then came up and told me that I needed to start my prelude at exactly 7:30.
What prelude?!?!
Fortunately, I had my iPad with all of my music with me, so I quickly moved over two of the pieces that I had played for prelude on Sunday to my Women’s Conference playlist, and set up a generic solo/accompaniment registration on the organ, and was able to start on cue (well, almost on cue–I didn’t realize how silent the Choir division’s string celeste was! It was completely silent in the loud space, so I had to quickly pull one on the Swell division). Fortunately, by adding a repeat on the second piece, I was able to fill the time and end right as the session needed to start. The congregational prelude piece was moved to be the opening hymn of the second half of the evening. Then I returned to my seat, with my iPad, to figure out what in the world I was going to play, cold, for postlude!
All I can say is thank heavens for my iPad and my large library of music at my fingertips! I went through my previous playlists for Sacrament and other meetings and pulled a few shorter arrangements that were appropriate for postlude, then penciled in registrations that I thought would work from my presets. I probably shouldn’t have started with Dale Wood’s Amazing Grace, though. It had been about eight months since I played it, and I had forgotten about the high F# pedal note that I usually look down to find, and couldn’t in my long skirt with the choir manual blocking my view…oops! Oh, well! That one was a bit rough.
Anyway, the pieces I ended up choosing for my second postlude set were actually really nice, and I’m really glad that I had the opportunity to play all of them. After Amazing Grace, I played Kasen’s I Know That My Redeemer Lives and Neil Harmon’s Prelude on ERIE. I was really enjoying myself. Then I ended with Kasen’s It Is Well with My Soul, again. Honestly, this set was a much better postlude than I had originally planned on playing.
I’m definitely not posting this to throw shade at anyone. Either there was a little breakdown in communication with me, or things were changed at the last minute–it really doesn’t matter. I actually thrive in chaos, as a former 911 dispatcher, and this ended up being fun for me to have to adapt on the fly.
But I do share it as a lesson to all of us. As organists, we cannot be overprepared, but we certainly can be underprepared. And if we ever have the idea to maybe choose a couple of extra prelude pieces or another postlude piece, even though they don’t seem needed, it might be a good idea to listen to that thought.
You just never know.