One By One: Hannah Evan’s Sacred Oratorio
In May of 2025, a commercial music student at BYU came up with the idea of writing an entire oratorio for her capstone project. An oratorio, similar to an opera, is a large-scale composition of music written for orchestra, choir, and vocal soloists. This student was Hannah Evans and she wanted to make a capstone project she was proud of. She would be graduating after the Winter 2026 semester so starting in 2025 would give her a year of preparation; a necessary amount of time for the size of the project. She wrote this oratorio as worship to Jesus Christ, similarly to Handel’s Messiah Oratorio. Evans used the Book of Mormon, specifically 3 Nephi to inspire her music. With the title One by One, it’s in reference to Christ’s visit to the Nephites in the Americas after His resurrection and asked to see and heal everyone individually.
The Lord Inspires the One
Evans describes how the beginning processes of her writing were “revelatory” as she said, “as soon as I would write one thing down, the next thing would come”. She only worked part-time throughout the summer so she could write the oratorio which her husband was gracious in supporting. She had a rough draft complete by the end of the summer in 2025 and was at least ready to start prepping some personnel to perform this. Writing for a full orchestra was something Evans never attempted prior, accenting the huge undertaking this was. She had taken an orchestration class which assisted the process tremendously but it didn’t take away from the unfamiliarity of the endeavor. Her creative method consisted of writing various themes and melodies in whatever key she pleased. Around 10 pieces in, she had to start thinking outside the box of how to bridge the gaps into each key and build the roadmap.
...once I kind of sat down and had that storyline, the gaps started to fill in.
With the full first draft completed a semester before the performance, it was then time to collect feedback and revision. She went to Ron Saltmarsh, the professor in charge of commercial music capstones, and he informed her of a music production seminar class Nathan Hofheins was teaching. Humbled and excited by the opportunity, she decided to register. Evans shared that this class was undoubtedly helpful. The whole class was about bringing their works to the classroom and Hofheins would provide feedback to help them improve their music composing abilities. With mentoring and most of her oratorio written, she then needed to recruit an orchestra before the next winter semester. Evans described recruitment being quite difficult but miraculous. Most of the instrumentalists enlisted were either friends of hers, recommendations of friends, or random players she found on the street. For the choir, she sent an email out to BYU’s choirs, announced it in Women’s Chorus, and even recruited performers backstage of the Celebration of Christmas concert. With these efforts, Evans says she had the perfect amount of musicians, around eighty in total, adding to her list of ongoing miracles.
The Lord Blesses the One
A special element of the development of this excellent oratorio’s first performance is how many miracles contributed to its upbringing. Recruiting musicians was already a miracle but there were many other things Evans felt were of note in the becoming of her creation. First and foremost, she said getting a concert hall was miraculous as the School of Music usually never lets students reserve the concert hall for their own performances. The only exceptions are organ students but she was also able to get it reserved. However, the original deal with claiming the Concert Hall for a performance was that the School of Music couldn’t give them a space to rehearse. They probably could’ve had rehearsals in a church building but the other problem was percussion. Evans compromised by asking if they could use Studio Y, used mostly by commercial music majors, and just borrow instruments. When talking with the School of Music Scheduling Office again later, they suggested rehearsing in the North Ensemble Room(NER). This room would provide them with ample room plus access to all of the percussion equipment they could need. Evans took the opportunity. Another miracle was that Evans finished her score the day of the first rehearsal meaning she had everything she needed to run rehearsal right when she needed it. After finishing her score, she also needed someone to bind it for her so she went to the BYU Music Library. Normally, they wouldn’t help with an individual project like this, but they did. They didn’t have the hole puncher needed but they have a technique that does the job. On top of that, her mother and sister were randomly in town that same day and they volunteered to help print all the music for the performers. Moving along with the miracles, Evans’ cousin plays tuba and wanted to play but didn’t own a tuba. Normally he could just get one from the instrument office but he’s not a student at BYU. Despite this, they were able to get special permission to rent it for him.
At the beginning of the Winter 2026 semester, rehearsals with the whole orchestra began and Evans was feeling a little distraught. Evans was watching President Reese’s first address that semester at a Tuesday devotional and this is how she said it went. “President Reese… said… you gotta believe. And that really helped after my first choir rehearsal because [that] rehearsal was rough… Only half the people showed up that said they were gonna show up. That just helps lift my spirits up and it was really good timing”. Evans took an instrumental conducting class about two years ago which was foundational in her ability to direct the orchestra. In light of her capstone project, she decided to take another conducting class of the choral variety in the Fall 2025. This sharpened her skills to exactly what she needed.
The Lord Uplifts the One
Along the journey, Evans faced physical and spiritual hardship but miraculously made her way through it. She got sick one week before the performance but was luckily able to still hold rehearsal. During the performance week, her husband then got sick but she luckily never got sick from it. With all of the chaos and difficulty that arose, she also started getting nightmares. She’d see vivid scenes of everything falling apart and failing, convinced Satan was trying his best to stop her. In her own words, “I had so many nightmares about it for months and it made me… think ‘Satan wants me to believe I can't do anything right, but God wants to help me. God wants me to believe I can do anything with his help’… My husband gave me a blessing, Saturday morning, [saying], ‘You're living the law of consecration and God will keep his end of the promise’”.
God’s Children Can Come to the One
Alongside some spectacular miracles, Evans got some incredible personnel involved in the project. Up first we have the famous Kirby Heyborne. Heyborne is very well-known among the Latter-Day Saint community as an actor in beloved LDS movies including The R.M., The Singles Ward, and many others. Evans and Heyborne knew each other while she was living in California as she took piano lessons from the same studio his kids did. Because of this relationship, she was able to ask if he could participate as the narrator for her oratorio, putting to work his trained voice for a professional-grade production. Another person who helped out this project tremendously was Ethan Arkell. Arkell is also a commercial music major and once he heard about this amazing venture, he changed his own capstone project to be editing, recording, and mixing the oratorio to later be published on Spotify. Evans’ friend, Callie Madson helped her recruit a lot of instrumentalists by sharing a list, including many who joined. Evans needed access to the percussion suite and she was able to obtain that. Her cousin also took pictures during her rehearsals which were used for her website. Speaking of her website, the day of the performance, her uncle was able to finish it so it could be published and accessed by anyone who wished to see it. An essential piece of an oratorio are the solo vocalists and Evans found some great ones. The soloists include Dallin Salway, Kimble Demars, Ellie Wirthlin, Annie Danley, Calder McDonald, and Emma Jones. Kimble Demars, the vocalist who played Nephi, had a great insight to share to Evans, saying that he felt when he would begin to sing, the words would come right to his mouth. The choir only had 10 rehearsals in short succession and didn’t have much time to memorize. Just as missionaries' mouths are filled with the words of Christ as they begin to speak, the choir and soloists of this ensemble were also.
The Story of the One
As mentioned earlier, Evans was conveying the story of 3 Nephi. It recounts events in the Book of Mormon starting with Samuel the Lamanite prophesying Christ's birth in Israel. It moves through those events all the way through Christ appearing to the Nephites in His resurrected body ready to heal and bless all one by one. Evans took some inspired creative liberties to these stories by adding two original characters to personify how, “He came, and He was real to them but He still comes, and He's real to us”. She aptly named them the Blind Man and the Blind Man’s Daughter who were both there with Jesus, seeking to be healed. The Blind Man specifically acted as a character to represent the physical and spiritual healing Christ provides. In his song, The Blind Man, he sings “I don’t mind being blind but couldst thou heal my heart”. To comment, Evans says,
It's okay if we have these trials or physical infirmities… but the most important thing is becoming spiritually whole in Christ.
This is followed by the women in the choir singing, “the darkness is light” which is a reference to an earlier piece titled, He is Born, which uses the same lyrics to represent how Christ’s Coming illuminated the darkness. In a similar vein, its use in the Blind Man’s song represents how his physical or spiritual blindness is made light.
The Blind Man’s Daughter also has a song; inspired by Elder McConkie’s talk given in 1985 titled The Purifying Power of Gethsemane. In his final testimony, Elder McConkie says, “I am one of his witnesses, and in a coming day I shall feel the nail marks in his hands and in his feet and shall wet his feet with my tears. But I shall not know any better then than I know now that he is God’s Almighty Son, that he is our Savior and Redeemer, and that salvation comes in and through his atoning blood and in no other way”. Mirroring Elder McConkie’s statement, in the song, He Still Comes, the Blind Man’s Daughter sings, “there comes a day when I, like you, will behold his face. He'll take me in his arms and say, ‘Welcome home!’ but I could not know more than I already know He's my Redeemer”. She serves as a witness to the Lord’s miracles and the bridge between the story and us. We too can be sure witnesses of Christ’s divinity and mercy and just how the Blind Man had faith in Christ before He could see Him, we too can have that faith.
We Can Come to the One
The night of the performance was absolutely magical. Being held on Saturday, March 14, 2026, Hannah Evans’ sacred oratorio One by One was a success that brought in a full house. Audience members report that in a break after the first few songs, they let in several other people that filled the hall. It was a full house! After such an incredible performance and inspired process that led to it, Evans says she does not want that to be the last time this is performed. Evans says, “I don't care so much if I become well-known. I want this message to become well-known. I really feel like God helped me write this… I want to perform it forever. I want it to be performed by other people”. She’ll be moving to Texas after her graduation this Winter semester and hopes this can be taken there and hopefully performed again.
