Tabernacle Choir, Orchestra perform at Utah governor’s inauguration

The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square performed two songs at Utah Gov. Spencer Cox’s inauguration at the Eccles Theater in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Jan. 8.

As the inauguration concluded, the curtain on the theater stage opened to show the choir and orchestra members. They performed “Homeward Bound” and “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

“The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square never disappoints, and it carries with it a spirit that pervades any event or group or circumstance, and today will be no exception,” choir president and former Utah Gov. Michael O. Leavitt said in a report on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.

Before the ceremony began, Cox told the choir and orchestra: “It means the world to me and means the world to our state that the choir is here today. There is no one that ties generations together better than [the Tabernacle Choir]. I hope it’s a great day for Utah and a very spiritual day for us all.”

Elder Kevin W. Pearson, a General Authority Seventy and the Church’s Utah Area president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, offered the invocation. He asked that the governor and those in his office be blessed with wisdom, discernment and compassion in their decision-making during difficult times.

President Dallin H. Oaks, first counselor in the First Presidency, and his wife, Sister Kristen Oaks, also attended with many other religious representatives, lawmakers and business and university leaders.

The choir and orchestra were one of four different musical groups that participated during the inauguration for Cox’s second term in office.

The Tabernacle Choir and orchestra have previously participated in past Utah’s governor inauguration ceremonies and for several presidential inaugurations.

The Tabernacle Choir includes up to 360 volunteer singers and a roster of 200 orchestra members. 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 Church is politically neutral on parties and candidates, and leaders encourage members to vote and participate in the political process, including “always demonstrating Christlike love and civility in political discourse.”