The 2025 Church Music Festival, “Hail the Day That Sees Him Rise,” will be a celebration of music of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The festival will be held on Saturday, Nov. 15, at 7 p.m., Mountain Standard Time, at the Salt Lake Tabernacle. The festival is free, and no tickets are required to attend. The songs will also be recorded for on-demand viewing and will be published later on the Church Music Festival archive page.
Performances at the 2025 festival will include arrangements of old and new hymns, with contemplative moments and more lively songs, explained a notice on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
“One thing that is unique about these arrangements and covers of hymns and songs is that they showcase how members make them their own using their unique mix of skills, culture and stylistic approach,” said Katie Bastian, a music manager in the Church’s Priesthood and Family Department. “Bringing different things to the table can have a unifying effect on the audience — that is our hope.”
Performers will include the Church Music Festival Choir; a children’s choir; combined institute choirs from Logan, Salt Lake, and Orem, Utah; a jazz combo; and a brass ensemble. The Unity Gospel Choir, founded by Debra Bonner, will also perform “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” and Emma Murdock will sing her arrangement of “This Little Light of Mine.”
Half of the program features new songs and arrangements from the Annual Church Music Submission, and people will be able to access the sheet music for use at home and church after it is published online at music.ChurchofJesusChrist.org. Past Church music submission-awarded music can also be viewed at that site, by scrolling down to the sections “Submitted Hymns,” “Music for Choir and Voice,” “Music for Instruments” and “Music for Children.”
The Church Music Festival began in the 1970s. In 2024, the festival featured songs in the new hymnbook and videos of performances in other parts of the world.
Bastian told the Church News in 2023 that festival organizers get 500 to 1,200 submissions a year and choose 80 to 90 for awards. But now, the festival’s focus is to feature sacred music in all different styles.
Members “want to see that music’s the language that we all speak. ... I think this festival is inviting members worldwide to think about worshiping through music in ways that they’ve never thought about before.”
