Mormon Musicians Gather Wednesday for PEARL Awards
Salt Lake Tribune 25Sep99 A4
By Peggy Fletcher Stack: Salt Lake Tribune

The Faith Centered Music Association will present its annual PEARL awards at 8 p.m. tonight in a gala ceremony and concert at the Salt Lake Community College's Grant Theatre. The awards, created in 1997, seek to recognize musicians performing and writing for the LDS market. At the gala tonight, the nominees for Performing Artist of the Year and Best New Artist will perform.

The FCMA is a nonprofit corporation founded by the artists and companies in the LDS music products industry to provide the awards and "raise the quality and expand the reach of faith-promoting music within the LDS community." according to Jeff Simpson of Excel Entertainment, one of the founding companies.

The finalists for tonight's awards were selected in March at the Mormon Arts Festival in St. George, Utah. Winners were chose by the membership of the FCMA and by the public through ballots available at retailers that carry FCMA artists. The results of the voting have been tallied by an accounting firm.