As many of you know - the song that I'm most known for is "Prayer of the Children." Since I wrote it in a moment of frustration over the Yugoslavian civil war back in 1994, it has been sung by thousands of choirs worldwide. I thought I would start posting some of the more unique and moving versions. Today - I'm featuring renditions by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and a new group out of England - Paradisum.

Obviously - it's a tremendous honor to have the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing anything I might compose or arrange. I've been lucky enough to have arranged a few songs the last couple of years. They've been an icon in choral music for over a century. This version begins with the song "of Dreams" from "Lord of the Rings" (which I arranged for them) and features Ryan Tani - boy soprano and Daron Bradford on Penny Whistle. It then segues into a TTBB version of "Prayer."

I like Paradisum's version because it has a timelessness to it. Using a traditional British choir sound with counter-tenors down to basses, they have done an arrangement which really brings out the fragility of the song. I also enjoy the solo tenor starting and ending the piece.

[click here to hear Paradisum]

By the way, you'll notice that Paradisum did not use the Croatian words "Dali cujete sve djecje molitve." That's just fine with me. In fact - I have been singing the last line in Arabic lately to remind the audience of the children in that part of the world that are suffering. I encourage other options and other languages as well. Check the blog often as I hope to post more creative versions of my song "Prayer of the Children." Thanks to all for keeping the "prayer" going....Kurt

[Beginning in @20 days, you'll be able to download different choir music sheet music of "Prayer of the Children" including the Tab Choir version, solo vocal/piano, duet, and a few others that I'm planning to arrange. www.kurtbestor.com]