Two hundred and fifty-five years ago, George Frederic Handel released his well-known and highly acclaimed Messiah. This holiday season Norman Miller will launch, after a one-year hiatus, his The Young Messiah tour. Coming to Universal Theater on Dec. 3 only, Miller’s production features an impressive line-up of contemporary Christian music’s brightest stars, which he will combine with a 200-voice choir and full orchestra.
The Young Messiah traces its roots to Scotland, where Miller has fond memories of a favorite family tradition: traveling to a local performance of Handel’s Messiah and then returning to listen to the 78 RPM records at home.
These boyhood memories led to the grown-up music executive’s dream-to assemble some of his favorite gospel artists to record a contemporary version of the classic work.
In 1989, Word Records released the first recording of The Young Messiah, along with a television special and musical debut. The following year, Miller launched the tour. Attendance has been relatively consistent from the first year’s average of 14,000 viewers per night, showing to over one million people. This explains the tour’s position as the most successful Christian music tour in history as well as the number one Christmas tour of all time.
Following public outcry in early 1997 after his Farewell Young Messiah tour of 1995, Miller and his Proper Management Productions, along with Contemporary Productions, decided to revive the tour and visit 15 cities, primarily those markets which had not hosted the Farewell tour.
This year’s tour features Christian artists and personalities Carman, Russ Taff, Avalon, Margaret Becker, Crystal Lewis, Greg Long, NewSong, Donnie McClurkin, and Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber of Veggie Tales.
