The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square will share a message of hope during its global tour during the next four years.
The choir and Orchestra at Temple Square are going to Mexico City, Mexico, June 13-19 with concerts in the National Auditorium on June 17 and 18, the choir announced on Tuesday, April 25, on the Church’s Mexico Newsroom and ChurchofJesusChrist.org. Free tickets to the concerts will be distributed by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints throughout Mexico City. The June 17 concert will also be nationally broadcast.
The choir last performed at the National Auditorium in 1972 during an area general conference Aug. 25-27 in Mexico and a concert on Aug. 28. The “Music & the Spoken Word” broadcast on Aug. 27, 1972, was performed for 16,000 people, and they commemorated the choir’s 125th anniversary. The choir sang in both English and Spanish, according to the Church News archives.
Future locations of the world tour will be announced later, according to the news release.
The concerts in Mexico City will also feature guest artists from Mexico with a repertoire that reflects, in part, the musicality of the culture.
Choir director Mack Wilberg said music will transcend cultural and language boundaries. “We feel the greatest gift our music can give the world at this time is hope. That’s what I want people to feel from our music.”
The tour also includes service opportunities for choir and orchestra members and filming a music video on location.
As part of its pilot programs, the choir will travel more frequently but for shorter periods of time as it works to fulfill the goal of being more visible globally and reaching as many people as possible.
Choir President Michael O. Leavitt said: “Our goal is to magnify the choir’s impact throughout the world by helping people feel God’s love for His children. Our performances will be free. Many will be livestreamed so local congregations in the regions we visit can invite their friends and communities to participate.”
In 1968, the Tabernacle Choir went to Mexico City and sang at the dedication of the El Centro Escolar Benemerito de Las Americas school by President N. Eldon Tanner of the First Presidency. It is now the site of the Mexico Missionary Training Center. The choir also sang in concerts that were part of the International Festival of the Arts or Cultural Olympics XIX. While at the Pyramid of the Sun, the choir “sang short groups of songs” that were filmed for Mexico City television shows, according to the Church News archives.
Prior to the Mexico City performances, the choir performed in Dallas, San Antonio’s HemisFair ‘68 and at Lackland Air Force Base, according to the Church News archives.
Previous choir tours
Previously, the tours had been every two years for longer periods of time.
The 2020 Heritage Tour, which was postponed and ultimately canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, would have been about three weeks in length, with concerts planned for cities in six European countries — Stockholm, Sweden; Helsinki, Finland; Copenhagen, Denmark; Oslo, Norway; Cardiff and Newport, Wales; and Edinburgh, Scotland.
The 2018 Classic Coast Tour was June 18 to July 3 — 16 days — and included concerts in California, Washington and Vancouver, British Columbia.
In 2016, the choir and orchestra’s first visit back to Europe in 18 years was a three-week tour in western Europe, and included concerts in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands.
In 2015, the Atlantic Coast Tour included concerts in Maryland, New York and Massachusetts. Other tours since 2000 are the 2013 Upper Midwest Tour, the 2011 Eastern States Tour, the 2009 Central States Tour, the 2007 Canada and Midwest Tour, the 2005 Northwest States Tour, 2003 Northeast States Tour and the 2001 Southern States Tour.
Pilot programs
The choir going on shorter, annual trips with a smaller company starting with Mexico City is the third of three pilot programs announced in November 2022.
The first is to bring in Church members from around the world to sing with the Tabernacle Choir during general conference. During the April 2023 general conference, 10 singers from six countries spent two weeks in Salt Lake City and sang during the Saturday morning and Sunday sessions.
The second pilot program is developing foreign language versions of the weekly “Music & the Spoken Word” broadcast, starting with Spanish and Portuguese.
All three of the pilot programs are to support the change to the choir’s mission, which has added “throughout the world” to read: “The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square performs music that inspires people throughout the world to draw closer to the divine and feel God’s love for His children.”
Also, earlier this month at the WorldHouse Interfaith and Interdenominational Assembly on April 13, where President Russell M. Nelson was named the inaugural laureate of the Gandhi-King-Mandela Peace Prize from Morehouse College, the music included the Tabernacle Choir’s virtual performances of “Come, Come, Ye Saints” and “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing.”
The Rev. Lawrence Edward Carter Sr., founding dean of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel who presented the award, hinted at a future collaboration between the Morehouse College and Spelman College glee clubs and The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square.
