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Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra to go to Peru for next ‘Songs of Hope’ tour stop in 2025

Choir stop in Peru will be the first performances in country

The next stop on The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square’s multiyear, multination “Songs of Hope” tour will be in Peru from Feb. 18 to 23, 2025, according to an announcement on ChurchofJesusChrist.org on Monday, Sept. 30.

“This will be the choir’s first time performing in Peru,” said choir President Michael O. Leavitt of going to the South American nation. “We look forward to sharing the messages of hope and peace that can be found in the choir’s music.”

Those living outside the greater Lima area can view the concert live at Latter-day Saint meetinghouses and watch parties across Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

Information on venues, free tickets and guest artists will be announced at a later date.

Adassa performs during a dress rehearsal held by The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida, on Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024. | Isaac Hale, Deseret News

Singer Adassa, known for her role as Dolores in “Encanto,” has performed with the choir several times, including during tour concerts in Mexico City, Mexico, in 2023 and in southern Florida in September. While she grew up in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Adassa’s parents are from Colombia.

“I’m beyond excited to know that they’re going to be going to this side of the world where my blood, my people come from,” Adassa said in an interview during the Florida tour stop. “I’m so grateful to know that those Saints are going to be able to get the performance of this amazing choir. …. It’s going to be a gift for them, truly, and I know they are going to receive it with open arms.”

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‘Songs of Hope’ tour

In November 2022, choir leaders announced that the choir’s tours would be shorter and more frequent. Previously, the choir and orchestra’s tours or travel assignments have been every few years with stops in many countries or states in a single trip. They appeared mostly at smaller concert halls.

Now, the choir and orchestra are traveling twice a year for shorter times, performing in larger venues for free and streaming one of the performances, as they “anchor and radiate.”

The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square and Orchestra at Temple Square perform at the National Auditorium in Mexico City on Saturday, June 17, 2023. | Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

In June 2023, the choir and orchestra’s first stop was in Mexico, where they performed “Esperanza” concerts at the Toluca Cathedral and at Mexico City’s National Auditorium, the latter of which seats about 10,000 people. Sharing messages and songs of hope, the two concerts in the National Auditorium featured guest artist singers Adassa and Alex Melecio, one of the narrators for the Spanish “Music & the Spoken Word,” and radio host Mariano Osorio.

The Philippines was the second stop on the “Himig ng Pag-asa” or “Melody of Hope” tour, in February 2024, with a sacred music concert at the University of Santo Tomas and two concerts in the SM Mall of Asia Arena. It featured singer and actress Lea Salonga, singer-songwriter Ysabella Cuevas and TV personalities Suzi Entrata-Abrera and Paolo Abrera.

The third stop was in the southeastern U.S. in Florida and Georgia in September 2024. The first concert of the southeastern U.S. tour stop was a bilingual Spanish/English concert in south Florida on Saturday, Sept. 7, with singers Adassa and Melecio.

The choir and orchestra traveled to Atlanta, Georgia, and joined with the Morehouse College and Spelman College glee clubs on Monday, Sept. 9, for a concert at the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel on the Morehouse College campus. On Wednesday, Sept. 11, the choir and orchestra performed during a 9/11 tribute in the Georgia State Capitol in the morning. In the evening, the choir, orchestra and both college glee clubs performed in Atlanta’s State Farm Arena with surprise guest artist Kristen Chenoweth.

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On all of the stops, select concerts have been available on YouTube, with area members and congregations encouraged to hold watch parties.

The tour includes members of the 360-voice volunteer choir and 85 members of the orchestra, along with choir leaders and staff. These “musical missionaries” are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and choir members have a monthslong audition process. The choir’s origins date back to 1847, when pioneer members of the Church formed a choir to sing at a conference of the Church weeks after arriving in Utah’s Salt Lake Valley. The orchestra was organized in 1999, and up to 85 musicians from a roster of 200 volunteers perform with the choir during the weekly “Music & the Spoken Word” broadcast and other special events.

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Church in Peru

There are more than 637,000 members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Peru, comprising 115 stakes and 784 congregations.

Four dedicated houses of the Lord are in the country: the Lima Peru Temple (dedicated in 1986), the Trujillo Peru Temple (2015), the Arequipa Peru Temple (2019) and the Lima Peru Los Olivos Temple (2024). There are five more houses of the Lord that are announced and in planning for the cities of Cusco, Iquitos, Chiclayo, Piura and Huancayo.

Tabernacle Choir tours (since 2000)

  • 2025 Hope tour — Lima, Peru.
  • 2024 Hope tour — Manila, Philippines; and Florida and Georgia.
  • 2023 Hope tour — Mexico City, Mexico, and Toluca, Mexico.
  • 2020 Heritage Tour — 6 European countries: Stockholm, Sweden; Helsinki, Finland; Copenhagen, Denmark; Oslo, Norway; Cardiff and Newport, Wales; and Edinburgh, Scotland — postponed and canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • 2018 Classic Coast Tour — Costa Mesa, Rohnert Park and Mountain View, California; Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; and Seattle, Washington.
  • 2016 European Tour — Berlin and Nuremberg, Germany; Vienna, Austria; Zurich, Switzerland; Frankfurt, Germany; Brussels, Belgium; and Rotterdam, Netherlands.
  • 2015 Atlantic Coast Tour — Bethesda, Maryland; Bethel Woods, Saratoga Springs, West Point, and New York, New York; and Boston, Massachusetts.
  • 2013 Upper Midwest Tour — Columbus, Ohio; Indianapolis, Indiana; Chicago, Illinois; Milwaukee and Madison, Wisconsin; and Minneapolis, Minnesota.
  • 2011 Eastern States Tour — Norfolk, Virginia; Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Chautauqua, New York; and Toronto, Canada.
  • 2009 Central States Tour — Cincinnati, Ohio; St. Louis, Missouri; Des Moines, Iowa; Omaha, Nebraska; Kansas City, Missouri; Norman, Oklahoma; and Denver, Colorado.
  • 2007 Canada and Midwest Tour — Toronto, Canada; Chautauqua, New York; Cleveland, Ohio; Chicago, Illinois; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee.
  • 2005 Northwest States Tour — Pocatello and Boise, Idaho; Spokane and Seattle, Washington; Portland, Oregon; Oakland, San Jose, and Sacramento, California; and Reno, Nevada.
  • 2003 Northeast States Tour — Traverse City and Grand Rapids, Michigan; Chautauqua, Saratoga, and New York, New York; Newark, New Jersey; Boston and Lenox, Massachusetts; Washington, D.C.; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
  • 2001 Southern States Tour — Houston and Fort Worth, Texas; New Orleans, Louisiana; Birmingham, Alabama; Atlanta, Georgia; and Tampa, Orlando, and Miami, Florida.
Singer-songwriter Ysabelle Cuevas and youth and young adults from metro Manila perform during The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square’s world tour in the Philippines in February 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Church News’ coverage of ‘Songs of Hope’ tour stops in Florida and Georgia

Correction: The dates of the Lima, Peru, tour stop are Feb. 18-23, not Feb. 18-25 as initially reported by ChurchofJesusChrist.org.

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