Rob Gardner’s “Lamb of God” Performed for 10th Season in Denver

By Paul Archer, Littleton Stake Communication Co-Director

On March 26, 27, and 28, 2026, Rob Gardner’s Lamb of God was performed in Denver, Colorado for the 10th season. Since 2015, Lamb of God has been presented 33 times by the Littleton Colorado Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at The Robert and Judi Newman Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Denver. The beautiful Easter Oratorio is performed by the Cornerstone Chorale and Orchestra with soloists and narrators selected by the musical directors of Cornerstone.  

Until 2022, the Chorale was known as the Colorado Mormon Chorale, having been created in 1985 for the dedication of the Colorado Denver Temple. For nearly 40 years, the Chorale was sponsored and led by the Church. In 2022, Church leadership asked Cornerstone Productions to assume sponsorship of the Chorale. The Cornerstone Chorale and Orchestra performs many times per year, often on behalf of the Church.

This year, for the first time in Colorado, all performances of Lamb of God were sold out with over 3,300 people attending the four performances held over three days. And, for the first time in Colorado, a youth Chorale and youth soloists performed the oratorio. In preparation for the performance, the youth, ages 14-24, gathered for two months for 90-minute weekly rehearsals.

Elder Karl D. Hirst, General Authority Seventy and Second Counselor in the Area Presidency of the United States Central Area, and his wife Sister Claire Hirst, attended opening night and participated in the fifth annual Community Leaders Reception held prior to the first performance on Thursday, March 26. In addition to meeting many of the gathered leaders of government, education, faith, non profit and business organizations, Elder Hirst extended a greeting from the leadership of The Church of Jesus Christ to the assembled 190 people.

A key theme of Lamb of God is hope through Jesus Christ. Echoing that theme, Elder Hirst shared from Preach My Gospel with the assembled community leaders and hosts. “Although we are imperfect and may fall short again, there is more grace, love and mercy in Jesus Christ than there is failure, flaw or sin in us. God is always ready and eager to embrace us as we turn to Him and repent. Nothing and no one ‘shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord’” (Romans 8:35, 39).

Elder and Sister Hirst returned to the Newman Center two days later as the youth chorale and soloists prepared for the matinee performance. The youth sang for the Hirst’s a seminal Lamb of God choir number, “I am the Resurrection.” The music was beautiful; more powerful was the spirit that accompanied these young singers as they bore their testimony in song to a special witness of Jesus Christ. Elder Hirst asked the talented young people in all of their doing and working at their talents, and refining their performances, to remember that in leading this beautiful expression of worship, the Lord was providing oil for lamps. Elder Hirst encouraged them to make sure that they capture some oil from the performance, for themselves. They listened. After the performance, one youth chorale member said, “I will never forget the love I felt and the spirit that was there in the performance.” Another said, “During the performance I felt like I was there during holy week. By the end of the performance I was more grateful for the atonement and so grateful for this experience because it really strengthened my testimony.”

Audience members during the three days of worship and hope were moved by the beautiful music and the powerful spiritual message of Lamb of God. Many shared their experience afterwards. Pastor Thomas Mayes, Pastor of Living Waters Christian Center and President of the Aurora chapter of the NAACP, wrote, “I just wanted to take a moment and say thank you so very much for allowing me to share in the Lamb of God experience. It was truly an awesome presentation and so inspiring that it laid the foundation for my sermon today, ‘Remember the Cross.’ I look forward to our continued fellowship with the Latter-day Saints of Jesus Christ.”

Centennial City Council Member Don Sheehan participated in the Community Leaders Reception and witnessed the opening night performance. “It is inspiring to share food and conversation with a group of people with a deep, convicted faith. The amazing talent on the stage created a musical masterpiece in a beautiful concert hall. We were told to hold our applause until the conductor’s right hand dropped. That was hard. I wanted to clap at the end of each movement. And when his hand finally dropped at the end, I didn’t want it to be over. Happy Easter.”

Before enjoying the opening night performance, other attendees at the Community Leaders Reception offered their thoughts about the special event:

“This is my first time at the Lamb of God event and I’m just thrilled to be learning about it. I didn’t know what to expect. I just heard a little bit of a preview and it sounds like a beautiful evening of music and spiritual awakening. And so I’m really looking forward to just experiencing all of that with you.”
     -Pam Brier, CEO, The Action Center

“Every year that I have come, the reception to me is one of the most important parts. It’s where we’re able to bring the community together. I see people from different faith denominations as well as different political affiliations. The Church [of Jesus Christ] of Latter-day Saints is an organization that has been working closely with the NAACP, but more importantly they don’t pay attention to your political background or if you belong to another faith. It’s about all of us coming together. And if you’re a person that believes in Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ made that our mission before He died on the cross–that we must come together to make this world a better place–which is why He died for our sins.”
     -Omar Montgomery, Rocky Mountain State Conference President, NAACP

“I love religious music. It takes me to a transcendent place. I believe that the ways that we can enter into transcendence through the practices of our tradition, through our scripture, through holy music, through prayer–these are not only the responsibility that we have as Christians to practice, but they heal us and they bring us together, they bind us together.”
     -Bishop Kristin Stoneking, Mountain Sky Conference, United Methodist Church

“I think these are times when the Easter message is more important than ever because in our own communities certainly around the world we know that there’s so much more in conflict, there’s so many places where despair could take root and grow and so many places where death and destruction are a part of life. And the Easter story is that reminder that the power of resurrection is always more powerful than the power of death. The power of life wins over the power of death. The power of love wins over hate. Forgiveness wins over sin. The Easter story is our reminder from God that even when things seem particularly bleak and we might lose hope and lose faith, that God is very present with those who suffer and with us. And that the other side of the story is the empty tomb and the risen and living Jesus.”
     -Bishop Meghan Johnston-Aelabouni, Rocky Mountain Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

 

Gina Garcia leads Evolution Sober Living which endeavors to assist people to escape the prison of substance addiction. A Cornerstone Productions leader met her at a street outreach in Aurora, Colo., and invited her to attend a performance of Lamb of God.  Gina came with 17 of her residents. “This experience,” she wrote, “hit differently. Many of our clients have deep rooted trauma from growing up in foster care, early exposure to drugs and alcohol, violence, incarceration, human trafficking, gang violence, homelessness and abuse. As they experienced the beauty of Lamb of God, watching some of them with tears in their eyes and hope in their hearts, left me with a gratitude to be a part of their lives during this moment, as they felt something that is life changing.  We express gratitude for being able to bring our clients – His children, to this beautiful experience.”

Lamb of God also touches performers. Amy York has been a member of the Cornerstone Chorale since 2019. She shared, “singing this music is an experience that feels profoundly personal, yet remains uniting and edifying for the entire company. Even the DU staff seems to be moved by the performance. While it’s exhausting to pour such emotional and physical resources into each performance, for weeks afterward, I wake to sweet refrains like ‘Here is Hope’ or ‘Trust in God, for He will hold your hand’ circling in my mind. The music becomes part of me, lifting the burdens of the world away to be replaced by a sweet knowing and a lightness of hope. My spirit finds its home in the harmony of ‘love unbounded, and mercy founded.’ As these melodies flow through me, I feel the surge of the shared victory that Christ proclaims. In those moments, it seems impossible for anything to be more important than the message of Jesus Christ and the hope His life offers us. This space where faith, music, and community collide is a remarkable gift.

Lamb of God by Rob Gardner, will be presented by the Littleton Colorado Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for the 11th year on March 31, April 1, 2 and 3, 2027.