Tabernacle Choir, Orchestra arrive for debut performance in Peru

LIMA, Peru — Cheers and music welcomed members of The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square arriving in Lima, Peru, on Tuesday, Feb. 18, as they begin the fourth stop on their multicity, multiyear “Songs of Hope,” (“Canciones De Esperanza”) tour.

This is the first time the choir and orchestra have been to Peru. Their itinerary includes a concert on Saturday, Feb. 22, at the National Stadium in Lima, Peru. The concert will feature musical artists representing Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia, with an audience of up to 30,000 people.

“There are a lot of firsts with this assignment,” Tabernacle Choir President Michael O. Leavitt said earlier this month.

“It will be the first time in Peru. It will be the first time we’ve performed [a full concert] in a stadium of this size. For the first time, we have connected four countries in the same performance live,” he said.

The National Stadium concert — home of the Peru national soccer team — will feature Colombian artist Juan Fernando Fonseca, known as Fonseca; Adassa, known as a the voice of Dolores in Disney’s “Encanto” and who has Colombian roots; Mauricio Mesones of Peru and a former member of the band Bareto; the Fabre Family from Ecuador; and Alex Melecio, who is from Mexico.

Los Kjarkas, Bolivian group known for their Andean music, will present a preshow performance.

The concert on Saturday, Feb. 22, will be streamed on the choir’s YouTube channel.

“We have come to know that the choir is loved around the world,” said President Leavitt. The messages of the choir and orchestra include hope and belonging. “We are all brothers and sisters,” he added.

The Tabernacle Choir first went to South America in 1981, when they performed in Brazil.

At Lima’s Jorge Chávez International Airport, choir and orchestra members were greeted by those cheering with balloons, a musical ensemble, a human-sized costumed Peruvian guinea pig and others dressed in native attire. At the hotel, music and dancers performed as the choir and orchestra checked in.

Asha Himmighoefer, who sings first soprano, said she could hear the welcome well before she could see them.

“It was so overwhelming, and it was so exciting,” she said, adding that she got emotional. “I am so grateful to be here and be part of this.”

Himmighoefer served a mission in El Salvador, and her brother served a mission in Peru. Their family visited Peru when she was a teenager, including a brief stop in Lima. “In all of Latin America, there’s a special feeling about the people.”

Kristi Burgess, who sings second soprano, said she felt like a celebrity with the welcome to the country. Burgess served a Spanish-speaking mission in Los Angeles and met people from across Latin America.

“I feel like they’re my people,” she said. “When you serve the people, you grow to love them.”

Like many choir and orchestra members, this is her first time in South America.

Choir, Orchestra’s ‘Songs of Hope’ tour

In June 2023, the choir and orchestra’s first stop was in Mexico City, 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. With 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. The later 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 September 2024. The first concert of that tour 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. Later that evening, the choir, orchestra and both college glee clubs performed in Atlanta’s State Farm Arena, along with surprise guest artist Kristen Chenoweth.

In August, the choir and orchestra are scheduled to go to Argentina.

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

President Leavitt said with each location, the choir is getting better at travel assignments. They have developed a travel app to better communicate with the 310 choir and 65 orchestra members and other support staff who are traveling, with daily health and safety check-ins. Those traveling also are required to take pre-tour COVID-19 tests.

It’s anticipated that the “Songs of Hope” tour will continue to 2027 and conclude with the dedication of the Salt Lake Temple, President Leavitt said. The Salt Lake Temple has been under extensive renovation since 2019 for seismic and other upgrades, with President Russell M. Nelson recently announcing the public open house for April to October 2027.

The tour includes most of the 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.

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, according to the Church. It has the fifth most members of the Church after the United States, Mexico, Brazil and the Philippines.

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.

The first congregation in the country — the Lima Peru Branch — was organized in July 1956, and the first full-time missionaries arrived in August. A building for Church meetings in Lima was purchased in November. Previously, Church members living in Peru had group meetings.

The Andes Mission was organized in November 1956, with headquarters in Lima, and the country’s first stake was organized in 1970,

In January 1988, 11 stakes in Peru were divided to create 18 new stakes in one weekend, overseen by a visiting Church Apostle, then-Elder M. Russell Ballard.

In 2024, Church leaders ministered in Peru, including Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who ministered in Peru and Ecuador last August, and Primary General President Susan H. Porter and Sister J. Anette Dennis, first counselor in the Relief Society general presidency, who were in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia in November.

2025 also marks 100 years since Elder Melvin J. Ballard dedicated South America for the preaching of the gospel.

Note: This was updated on Feb. 21, 2025, with additional photos.