Meet Tabernacle Choir, Orchestra members with ties to Peru, Ecuador

LIMA, Peru — Clara Hurtado Lee was emotional after The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square’s first concert in Lima, Peru, earlier this week on Wednesday, Feb. 19.

“It just felt like such a full-circle moment for me,” she said.

Lee’s father is from Lima and immigrated to the United States in the 1960s after he was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He moved around a few places and eventually to Utah. He sang in the Tabernacle Choir 1972 to 1994.

After he died, listening to the Tabernacle Choir helped her feel closer to him.

“Music is something that we both shared, and he gave me the gift of singing,” Lee said. “I know that his experience in the choir was just so precious to him.”

The choir and orchestra are in Lima from Feb. 18-23 for a stop on the “Songs of Hope” tour. It’s the first time the choir has performed in Peru.

The choir’s Saturday, Feb. 22, concert in the National Stadium is being livestreamed, with watch parties planned in Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and Colombia. It’s scheduled to start at 8 p.m. Peru Standard Time, 6 p.m. Mountain Standard Time. A preshow is available in some areas.

Lee, who sings first soprano, is one of several members of the choir or orchestra who have ties to those four countries.

Violinist Rodrigo Betancourth is from Guayaquil, Ecuador, and he knew the members of the Fabre family, who will be performing in the Feb. 22 concert, from their days studying at the music conservatory and also in the symphony orchestra.

His mother was baptized at 17 and his father was baptized when Betancourth was born — the second child in the family. Two more — a sister and brother — would join their family. His mother felt impressed that the children needed to learn music, so young Rodrigo decided to play the violin.

While he was a teenager, his mother taught him an important lesson about his musical abilities when he didn’t want to go play for a Church event on a Saturday. “I want you to share your talent with the Church,” Betancourth said of his mother’s lesson.

“When I went to the mission and I took my violin with me, it made a difference,” Betancourth said of serving in Quito, Ecuador. He used it many times at Church events, teaching or contacting in the park.

After returning from a mission, he joined the local orchestra in Guayaquil. It was about 10 years ago when he and his family moved to Utah. He auditioned for the Tabernacle orchestra, but then was called to be in a bishopric. When he decided to audition again, he was juggling learning the audition music with earning a master’s degree in conducting.

During Wednesday’s concert, he said the last two hymns — “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and “The Spirit of God” — are testimonies of the Restoration for him. “We play these things all the time, but tonight it was special,” he said after the concert.

Lee said she’s been able to visit with several family members still living in the Lima area, and several are planning to come to the concert. Also, a niece is serving a mission in the Lima area.

Her father, his sister and an aunt immigrated to the U.S., and Lee and her family visited Peru about 15 years ago and met those still there. Then, Lee and her brothers were able to do temple work for family members in the Lima Peru Temple, including the sealings of her grandparents and one of their children who died as a child.

This tour stop feels more personal to Lee.

“I feel more of a connection to the people here,” she said.

Family gathering in Peru

Violinist Krista Utrilla’s husband’s family is from Peru. His parents now live in Utah and siblings live in various parts of the world. They are all planning to be together in Lima for the choir and orchestra’s National Stadium concert.

Her mother-in-law, Elena Utrilla, was baptized more than 60 years ago, when the Church was still growing from small branches. Elena Utrilla and several family members were at the choir’s concert for about 400 people on Wednesday, Feb. 19.

Krista Utrilla said, “There are so many amazing members of the Church here.” She added that they are loving — clarifying to the Spanish “cariñoso.”

Missionary moments

Sharon Seminario’s husband’s parents are both from Peru. As teenagers, they separately moved to Los Angeles, California, where they were baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They eventually met and got married.

“My husband is here [in Lima] and will take some of his family members to the concert,” said Seminario, who sings first soprano.

Seminario’s husband also flew down for the concert, and several family members are planning to come. “It’s special for our family,” Seminario said of being in a place with so many of her family’s roots.

Their oldest daughter is serving a mission in the Lima area, and she and her companion are also planning on attending with several of their friends. Her daughter received her mission call the day the choir was flying out to the Philippines a year ago. They crossed paths in the Atlanta, Georgia, airport when the choir was traveling for the Southeastern U.S. stops in Florida and Georgia in September 2024 and her daughter was flying to Peru.

“It’s like we get to serve together” in Peru, Seminario said of her “musical missionary” service in the choir and her daughter’s teaching missionary assignment.

Global participants

Axa Zarate of Peru said “it’s like a dream” to have the choir and orchestra performing in Peru.

“It’s the most beautiful thing that I never imagined,” she said.

Zarate is one of the choir’s global participants — musicians from around the world who audition to come to sing with the choir at general conference. The global participants’ audition process mirrors that of the choir members who live within 100 miles of Salt Lake City. Zarate, Yanini Murga of Ecuador and Marcelo Maldonado of Bolivia are singing with the choir in Peru.

“I could feel the love and spirit of the Savior,” Zarate said of performing in the choir’s first concert in Peru. Zarate performed with the choir in the October 2024 general conference.

There was a moment during the interfaith concert that Murga found she couldn’t sing.

The opera singer just listened as the choir sang “A Mi Lindo Ecuador” in Spanish at the end of the concert on Wednesday, Feb. 19. “It was amazing,” she said of the choir singing songs connected to the four countries.

“The Tabernacle Choir is a choir for the whole world,” said Murga, who sang in the October 2023 and October 2024 general conferences. She added that through the choir, she feels the love of Heavenly Father and hopes others do, too.

“I feel so grateful,” she said of the opportunity to sing with the Tabernacle Choir.

How to watch, stream the concert in the National Stadium

The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square’s concert in the National Stadium is being livestreamed on the choir’s YouTube channel, broadcasts.ChurchofJesusChrist.org and the Gospel Stream app. It will be available for on-demand viewing after the concert.

It’s scheduled to start at 8 p.m. Peru Standard Time, 6 p.m. Mountain Standard Time. A preshow is available in some areas.

Watch parties are planned in Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and Colombia.

There are 320 members of the 360-voice volunteer choir on tour and 68 members of the orchestra, along with choir leaders and staff. These “musical missionaries” are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-days, 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 Tabernacle Choir first went to South America in 1981, when it performed in Brazil. This is the first time the choir and orchestra are performing in Peru.