I never met Kurt personally but I remember asking Sam to play a challenging piano duet. Kurt’s childhood friend Sam Cardon was one of my neighbors. I take people on a little journey in concerts. It makes me feel like I have a mission or purpose in life. I can put it down on paper out of my head, and the musicians combine their talents and the audience receives what I felt when I was in my room by myself creating it. I don’t even totally understand how that works. My favorite feeling is to stand in front of a symphony, and when I lower the baton, out of 80 or 90 musicians comes something that was in my head. His Christmas music has been displayed in annual Christmas concerts with guest performers such as Jennifer Warnes, Richard Elliot, Debbie Gibson, Donny Osmond, Eyevonne Williams, and Charlie Bisharat. He composed, arranged, and recorded his own CDs despite people telling him he wouldn’t succeed. Kurt studied during the Sundance Film Festival with the famous film composers Dave Grusin, Alan Silvestri, & David Raksin. Later, he completed a degree in Studio Composition, and in 1998 he received an honorary degree from Utah Valley University. Kurt dropped out of Brigham Young University (music composition major) to write music for TV themes, commercials, and movies. Since his two divorces, he has remarried and currently lives with his wife Petrina and daughter Ella. He later married the singer Holli Ammon (2000) and lived with her and her two children for a couple of months. attending concerts and charity events) led to missing his children’s recitals, school events, and family reunions, and ultimately, to his divorce. He married Melodie, an accomplished pianist who helped critique his music, and had two daughters (Kristan & Ericka) who were born with spina bifida. Kurt is not only a successful musician and famous Mormon but also a busy father. I invite you to listen to Kurt Bestor’s music about the restoration of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ on this short video: I have felt Kurt’s powerful testimony of God while listening to his uplifting music. Everyone’s breathing at the same time when the music goes up, everyone goes up, and when it goes down, everyone goes down. There are moments when time stands still. When I do “Prayer of the Children,” it’s as if the audience doesn’t want to breathe. During the Yugoslav wars, his love for the people was expressed in his composition of the famous song “ Prayer of the Children”. Kurt was very excited to share his beliefs with others when he was called by a prophet of God to serve a mission (two years voluntary service) in the former Yugoslavia. His faith in God has impacted not only his music, but other people worldwide. I love where I am - spiritually active with the same values that I’ve always had. I also feel a deep spiritual mission, a ‘calling’ as it were, to spread my gospel of peace and sweetness through music. There’s nothing in my life that is at odds with my Mormonism. I see God in the miracle of life and feel Him in the music, but have trouble, at times, understanding His true nature… have a strong yearning to live as Jesus did. I attend church, but find myself closer to God when I hike Timpanogos. When he was a young man, his parents and three siblings were baptized members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (often mistakenly called the Mormon Church by the media). He joined the LDS Church (1977) when he learned of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The famous Mormon musician was raised in a Catholic family that taught Christian values. Kurt also competed 10 years on local swim teams and obtained a state meet medal and broke school records. Kurt was a finalist for the Utah Sterling Scholar Award in Music. He performed in musical theater and played the trumpet for orchestra, symphonic band, jazz band, acapella choir, and chamber choir. The Orem High School faculty awarded him the “Tigerama Award” for contributing the most during his high school years. He accomplished not only this but more, as many can visualize, feel, and imagine scenes simply through listening to his music.Īs a teenager at Orem High School, he developed his musical talent and competed as an athlete. When he watched the movie Jaws during high school, he focused on the film’s music and dreamed of composing film scores. His mother influenced his desire to play the piano, as she encouraged him to imagine and play a sunrise. Kurt started playing the piano at a young age and later the trumpet. He was born in 1958 in Waukesha, Wisconsin, but grew up in Orem, Utah (1966). Kurt Bestor is an accomplished musician, composer, actor, athlete, poet, sculptor, artist, and famous Mormon who uplifts people worldwide through his music.
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