From Adassa’s upbeat Latin music to strains of “Hallelujah,” The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square and Orchestra at Temple Square gave a musical tribute to pioneers during the 2023 Summer Concert on Friday, July 14, in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City.
In addition to spreading hope, including hope in the Savior Jesus Christ, the night of music was a tribute to the pioneers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who came to the Salt Lake Valley in search of religious freedom and also to those who helped share the gospel in Latin America. Singers Adassa and Alex Melecio were the guest artists.
Adassa, who voiced Dolores Madrigal in Disney’s “Encanto,” danced out on the stage as she sang the upbeat “La Vida Es un Carnaval” (“Life Is a Party”).
While “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” is a popular song from “Encanto,” the “song that melted hearts was about two little caterpillars,” she said. In “Dos Oruguitas,” the caterpillars helped each other find hope and love as they became butterflies.
“Hope is what we remember when we think about our Savior and what He has done for us,” Adassa said before singing “Dos Oruguitas.” As she sang, many in the audience held up and waved the lights on their cellphones.
The choir and orchestra recently returned from opening their multiyear, multicity world tour to spread hope in Mexico City, Mexico, including two concerts in the nearly 10,000-seat National Cathedral. Adassa and Melecio both performed with the choir there.
“Meditation” was next, with the music video the choir and orchestra created in Toluca, Mexico.
The Tabernacle Choir’s Latin America pioneer tribute
Interspersed in Melecio’s “Color Esperanza” (“Painting the Colors of Hope”), Tabernacle Choir singers Alberto Treviño, Reyna Calvert and siblings Damaris Zarco and Hirepan Zarco, and orchestra violinist Rodrigo Betancourth, all from Mexico, voiced tributes to pioneers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in their home country, spoken in both English and Spanish, and how Jesus Christ is the source of hope for many pioneers as they faced trials.
“While members of the Church in Latin America experience all of the prophesied challenges of the last days, they also experience the hope that grows in the hearts of all true pioneers,” Hirepan Zarco said. “Every day these latter-day pioneers move ahead with faith in every footstep and it shows.”
Calvert invited everyone in the audience to hold up the lights on their phones to share their hope for the future — and the auditorium flooded with tiny lights from people holding up their phones.
Songs of hope, praise during the Tabernacle Choir 2023 Summer Concert
The concert, conducted by choir music director Mack Wilberg and assistant music director Ryan Murphy, opened with a tribute to Utah’s pioneers with “The Handcart Song” and “Faith in Every Footstep.” Throughout the concert, a variety of images, from the Salt Lake Temple to stained glass, were projected above the choir next to the organ pipes with coordinating colors on the pipes.
The choir then sang hymns of praise — ringing bells opened “Alleluia Fanfare/Praise to the Lord, Almighty,” in English and Spanish; and sang both “Come, Ye Children of the Lord” and “Alabaré a Mi Señor” (“I Will Praise My Lord”) in Spanish. Two different songs titled “Hallelujah” followed — one chantlike and calming, the other soared, with seemingly disjointed individual parts building before coming together to fill the space with music.
Next were the celebratory “¡Ah, El Novio No Quiere Dinero!” a Sephardic wedding song, and the Nigerian carol “Betelehemu” sung in Yorubu. The choir and orchestra then performed a trio of songs in English about being in love: the upbeat “Music Everywhere,” the softer “We Shall Gather at the River” and the love song “Cindy.”
Sisters-in-law Denisse Elorza Avalos, of Tijuana, Mexico, and Georgina Montemayor Wong, of Monterrey, Mexico, who were two of the 10 international singers who sang with the Tabernacle Choir during the April 2023 general conference, joined the 360-voice choir and 78-member orchestra orchestra for two “hymns of hope” — “Let Us All Press On” and “The Spirit of God” with verses in English and Spanish.
The summer concert tradition started out as a Pioneer Day concert to honor early members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who came west to Utah seeking religious freedom. The first group arrived in July 1847, and July 24 is celebrated as Pioneer Day in the state.
How to watch the Tabernacle Choir’s 2023 Summer Concert
Tickets, which are free, are required for the in-person concert on Saturday, July 15, at 7:30 p.m. on a first-come, first-served basis at mpv.tickets.com. Tickets are limited to 18,000 in the 21,000-seat Conference Center due to the construction on and around Temple Square.
The concert will be streamed live on the choir’s English and Spanish YouTube channels on Saturday, July 15, at 7:30 p.m. Mountain Time and available for a limited time after the concert. It will also be broadcast on BYUtv on Sunday, July 23, at 5 p.m. Mountain Time (check local listings).
The concert will be presented in a combination of English and Spanish with translations available.
