The nearly 22-minute pre-show celebration of The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square’s 5,000th episode of “Music & the Spoken Word” is now available on the Tabernacle Choir’s YouTube channel.
The 5,000th episode of “Music & the Spoken Word” — the longest continuously running network broadcast in history — was on Sunday, July 13, 2025, and events included a pre-show and the regular 30-minute “Music & the Spoken Word” broadcast followed by an encore musical celebration. Members of the Orchestra at Temple Square and the Bells at Temple Square also performed.
The pre-show and the encore celebration were presented to the more than 11,500 people gathered in the Conference Center in downtown Salt Lake City.
The first broadcast was on July 15, 1929, with a single microphone in the Salt Lake Tabernacle.
The 2025 pre-show began with a welcome and thanks from Tabernacle Choir President Michael O. Leavitt. He also noted the history of the choir — starting 178 years ago.
“‘Music & the Spoken Word’ continues each week as a beacon,” said President Leavitt during the pre-show. “A beacon of peace, a beacon of light to the world.”
President Leavitt also shared a statement from President Russell M. Nelson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: “‘Music & the Spoken Word’ knows no boundaries in this great world with multiple races and nationalities. ‘Music & the Spoken Word’ is a global resource. Music is the universal language of the Spirit. Music communicates to the heart and soul of individuals in a way that written words cannot duplicate.”
During the pre-show, Derrick Porter, who is executive producer, principal writer and presenter of “Music & the Spoken Word,” recognized several people who had contributed to the program.
Those included:
- Lela Christiansen, 98, the oldest known living choir alumni, who sang with the choir from 1964 to 1987.
- Elizabeth Ashton, violinist with the Orchestra at Temple Square, who joined when it was created in 1999. Since then, she and her husband, Brigham Ashton, have welcomed 10 children to their family.
- Nathan Givens and his wife, Deborah Givens, sing in the choir. His great-great-grandparents Charles and Florence Rose met in 1900 when they sang together in the choir, became engaged and got married.
- Kyle Woodruff, who joined the choir in 2023, is “here each week, contributing and sharing his talents with the world and doing it all while being totally blind,” Porter said.
- Choir member Sarah Clayton represents six consecutive generations of choir members in her family. Her third-great-grandmother Sarah was part of the choir in 1883.
- The families of Jane Hillier Clark and Elliott Clark bring together more than 130 years of combined service between them and across both sides of their families as 40 family members have performed with the choir or orchestra, including their niece who sings first soprano. Jane Hillier Clark, who plays violin in the orchestra, was using a violin July 13 that was made by her great-grandfather 112 years ago.
- More than 150 family members of Elder Richard L. Evans, the first presenter of “Music & the Spoken Word” and later a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, were asked to stand and be recognized. Later in the celebration, past presenter J. Spencer Kinard and his family and the family of Lloyd D. Newell were recognized. President Newell is serving as a mission leader for the Church in Los Angeles, California.
Earlier this year, Porter invited people to send in their stories of experiences with “Music & the Spoken Word” and received more than 1,200 responses. Porter shared some of those experiences, including one from an Army nurse working at a hospital in 1970 in Tokyo, Japan, and how the injured men in the hospital ward she served in would listen to the program on many Sunday mornings.
“The hope and purpose of this program is to offer inspiring music along with a simple message as a means to help people feel and remember their connection to God,” Porter said.
Remembering the 1st episode of ‘Music & the Spoken Word’
Warna Huff, 101, recalled during the encore video tribute listening to the first broadcast when she was 5 years old.
Huff, who lives in Yuba City, California, still watches “Music & the Spoken Word” on Sunday mornings and has for many years, said Peter Hall, her ministering brother in the Hillcrest Ward, Yuba City California Stake. “She’s a sweet, happy woman,” Hall told the Church News.
Hall has heard Huff tell the story of listening to the first episode of “Music & the Spoken Word” on several occasions and shared it with the choir in response to Porter’s invitation.
Huff’s mother was training to be a nurse, so Huff and her sisters were staying at her grandmother’s house in Nord, on the north side of Chico, California. She was there in summer 1929 when her aunt had them gather around the radio.
“What is this?” Huff recounted in the encore video. Her aunt told her: “This is something you don’t want to forget.”
Huff and her sisters sat on the floor to listen, recounted Hall, adding that Huff says it was “excellent.”
The next week, Huff wanted to listen to it again and had to dial through the channels on the radio to find it, Hall said.
Porter visited with Huff in her home. Porter said that throughout her life as a girl, teenager and mother, Huff said she was able to listen to “Music & the Spoken Word” and “it helped me.”
“And then I became a grandmother, and I thought to myself ‘Is ”Music & the Spoken Word” still there for me? Yes, it is.’ And I found it and it helped me,” Porter recalled Huff saying.
Now, Huff is nearly 102 and still watches it on Sundays.
Hall said Huff doesn’t claim a favorite song as she enjoys the choir and orchestra’s music, but she does really like it when the choir sings “Consider the Lillies.”
Huff said: “It just makes you feel good. It just makes you feel something that you need. The music’s beautiful.”
