Back on December 6, Lunenburg's beloved virtuoso embarked on a weeklong journey to Utah, and the fulfilment of a lifelong dream.

 "I have friends there who invited me to come and visit," Mr. Aulenbach recalled. "And of course, being near Christmas I was eager to see the Tabernacle Choir's annual Christmas concert."

 He said because he has seen the concert on television for a number of years, he jumped at the opportunity to attend the event in person for the first time.

 The 360-member group, which is based in Salt Lake City at the headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is one of the oldest, largest and most recognized choirs in the world.

 Since originating in the mid-19th century, the group has received countless awards and accolades while selling millions of records and performing at venues all over the world.

 In order to accommodate their huge following of supporters, they hold their annual Christmas performance in the 20,000-seat Salt Lake City Conference Centre.

 "Since over two million people applied for free tickets, we were fortunate to receive five which were drawn for the four nights of performances," he explained, adding that three performances of the concert were originally scheduled, but an extra was added because of the demand.

 Prior to the concert, Mr. Aulenbach had the good fortune of being able to attend a rehearsal for the choir, its 80-piece orchestra, over 100 bell ringers and 35 dancers who took part in the program.

 It was a rare opportunity for him to see the "background workings" of such a large group of talented performers, which included two soloists, one who recited the story behind Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem "I heard the Bells on Christmas Day."

 An accomplished musician in his own right, Mr. Aulenbach was also honoured to have the opportunity to play three different pipe organs in the course of two days during his stay.

 "They included the five manual console in the famous tabernacle, where the choir regularly rehearses and records," he said, adding that the church's organist, Richard Elliott, invited him to come up and play the instrument when the rehearsal was completed.

 "The people around were astonished. Not too many people get their hands on this, so that was quite an honour," he laughed. "Because of my relationship with St. John's [Anglican] Church, [he] invited me to play after he had demonstrated the organ's capabilities. He's a terrific technician. It was great."

 Mr. Aulenbach said that along with the honour of attending the concert and getting the chance to play the organ at the tabernacle, he was also astounded at the hundreds of thousands of lights that decorated Temple Square, as well as the life-size nativity scene that is featured several times a day during the holiday season.

 "A week in Salt Lake City is a real treat," he said.