Saints Unified Voices - Early Years

Early Years

In 2002, Gladys Knight put together a small singing group to perform with her at Women's Conference at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Later, Sullivan Richardson asked her to form a choir to perform at a special fireside event back home in Henderson, Nevada. Vocalists came from as far away as Los Angeles to audition for this special choir. John Fluker, Kelly Eisenhower, Scott Cannady, and Matthew Pittman, professional musicians from Knight's crew at the Flamingo Las Vegas, volunteered to serve as musicians for the choir.

“Except for a few, these wonderful people had never sung gospel music before,” says Gladys. They were also not accustomed to singing without sheet music. Given only the words to the hymns typed in paragraph form, the choir learned to sing the songs by following Gladys. “All they get is the lyrics because I don’t want anybody reading notes on paper. They have to feel this music,” says Gladys. After three months of Saturday rehearsals, the choir's first performance was in August 2002. The performance was very well received, and Gladys held more auditions to raise the choir's performing level and commitment. Eventually she choose 100 culturally diverse voices. All are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. By the end of the year, the choir performed at four stake centers near Las Vegas, one at Deseret Book’s Time Out for Women in Las Vegas and another one in Phoenix, and at the Salt Lake Tabernacle on Temple Square.

In 2003, the choir was invited to perform at Salt Lake Tabernacle on Temple Square as part of the anniversary celebration of the priesthood being available to all worthy men.