Tabernacle Choir

The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square performing on December 3, 2005, in the LDS Conference Center under the direction of Craig Jessop

The Tabernacle was completed in 1867 and the choir held its first concert there on July 4, 1873.[9]

The choir started out fairly small and rather undisciplined. In 1869, George Careless was appointed as the choir's conductor and the Tabernacle Choir began to improve musically. Under Careless, the first large choir was assembled by adding smaller choral groups to the main Salt Lake Choir. This larger choir, just over 300, sang at the church's October 1873 general conference. It was at this point that the choir began to match the size of the spacious Tabernacle. On September 1, 1910, the choir sang the song, "Let the Mountains shout for Joy",[10] as their first ever recording. Three hundred of the 600 members showed up for the recording.[11]

Since July 15, 1929, the choir has performed a weekly radio broadcast called Music & the Spoken Word, which is one of the longest-running continuous radio network broadcasts in the world.[12]

Later directors brought more solid vocal training and worked to raise the standards of the choir. The choir also began improving as an ensemble and increased its repertoire from around one hundred songs to nearly a thousand. In July 1929, the choir performed its first radio broadcast of Music & the Spoken Word. By 1950, the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square performed numerous concerts each year and had released its first long-playing recording. During the 1950s, the choir made its first tour of Europe and earned a Grammy Award for its recording of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic". Later directors of the choir continued to hone and refine the choir's sound.

At the end of the choir's 4,165th live broadcast on July 12, 2009, the show's host, Lloyd D. Newell, announced another milestone that the show had hit: the completion of its 80th year in existence. The show has been televised since the early 1960s and is now broadcast worldwide through approximately 1,500 radio and television stations.

On October 5, 2018, the choir retired the name "The Mormon Tabernacle Choir" and adopted the name "The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square" in order to align with the direction of LDS Church leadership regarding the use of terms "Mormon" and "LDS" in referencing church members. The new name retains the reference to the historic Salt Lake Tabernacle, which has been the choir's home for over 150 years, and its location on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah.[13]

Several award-winning popular artists have reflected on the beauty of the choir's music publicly including: Bryn Terfel,[14] Gladys Knight (of Gladys Knight and the Pips),[15] Sting (of The Police),[16][17] James Taylor,[18] Ric Ocasek (of The Cars),[19] and The Osmonds.[20]

Logo from 2004 for The Tabernacle Choir's celebrations of 75 years of Music & the Spoken Word

Since its establishment, The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square has performed and recorded extensively, not only in the United States (where U.S. President Ronald Reagan called it "America's Choir"[21]) but around the world. The following are some of its milestones:

• Visited 28 countries outside the United States.
• Performed at 13 World's Fairs and Expositions.
• Released more than 130 musical compilations and several films and videotapes.
• Reached more than 100 million YouTube views on its channel (in October 2017).[22]
• "Come, Thou Font of Every Blessing" became the choir's first video to surpass 10 million YouTube views (in July 2020).[23]

The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square has performed for ten presidents of the United States beginning with William Howard Taft.[9] The choir has also performed at the inaugurations of United States presidents Lyndon B. Johnson (1965), Richard M. Nixon (1969), Ronald Reagan (1981), George Bush (1989), George W. Bush (2001),[24] and Donald Trump (2017).[25]

Other notable events the choir has performed at include the following:

• Performed over 20 times at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, including at the Opening Ceremony, where they sang the national anthem and the Olympic Hymn under the direction of John Williams.
• The American Bicentennial in Washington, D.C. (July 4, 1976)
• The Constitution's bicentennial celebration at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1987)

It has also participated in several significant events, including:

• National broadcasts honoring the passing of U.S. Presidents:
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt (April 12, 1945)
  • John F. Kennedy (November 24, 1963)

Christmas concerts

Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square performing in the Conference Center in 2014

The choir performs an annual Christmas concert in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City during the month of December. Typically, the concert consists of three performances: a Thursday dress rehearsal, followed by Friday and Saturday concerts. The combined audience for each concert series is approximately 63,000. Tickets to the concert are free, and are available on a first-come, first-served basis.[42] A live album (CD/DVD) is typically released, along with the concert being aired on PBS and BYUtv, during December of the following year.

Guest artists participate and sing with the choir most years. A guest narrator is also invited most years to read the Christmas story from the Book of Luke. Past guest artists have included:

• 2000: R&B singer Gladys Knight and actress Roma Downey[43]
• 2001: Actress Angela Lansbury
• 2002: News anchor Walter Cronkite
• 2003: Mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade and baritone Bryn Terfel
• 2004: Actress Audra McDonald and actor Peter Graves
• 2005: Soprano Renée Fleming and actress Claire Bloom
• 2006: Soprano Sissel Kyrkjebø
• 2007: A cappella group the King's Singers
• 2008: Broadway singer Brian Stokes Mitchell and actor Edward Herrmann[44]
• 2009: Jazz singer Natalie Cole and historian David McCullough[45]
• 2010: Pop singer David Archuleta and actor Michael York[46]
• 2011: Operatic baritone Nathan Gunn and actress Jane Seymour[47]
• 2012: Tenor Alfie Boe and news anchor Tom Brokaw[48] The event also featured Col. Gail "Hal" Halvorsen.[49]
• 2013: Soprano Deborah Voigt and actor John Rhys-Davies[50]
• 2014: Actor Santino Fontana and The Sesame Street Muppets[51][52]
• 2015: Broadway singer Laura Osnes, actor Martin Jarvis, and four Metropolitan Opera soloists.[53]
• 2016: Tenor Rolando Villazón[54]
• 2017: Actress Sutton Foster and actor Hugh Bonneville[55]
• 2018: Actress and coloratura soprano Kristin Chenoweth[56]
• 2019: Broadway actress Kelli O'Hara and actor Richard Thomas[57]
• 2020: No concert due to COVID-19 pandemic [58]

The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square has about 15 staff members including a president, directors, organists, a Music and the Spoken Word announcer, and two business-related staff members.

The choir has a number of awards, including the National Medal of Arts (2003),[68] a Grammy Award for Best Performance by a Vocal Group or Chorus (1960), and four Emmy Awards (1987, 2013, 2014).[9][69][70] The choir is also an inductee to the American Classical Music Hall of Fame (2015) and the National Association of Broadcasters Broadcasting Hall of Fame (2004).[71] The 320-person choir is the largest act to chart on the Billboard Hot 100—their version of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" reached No. 13 in 1959.[72]

Since its first recording in 1910, the choir has earned five gold albums (two in 1963: The Lord's Prayer and Handel's Messiah; one in 1979: The Joy of Christmas; and two in 1985: The Mormon Tabernacle Choir Sings Christmas Carols and Joy to the World) and two platinum albums (in 1991, Hallmark Christmas: Carols of Christmas and in 1992, Hallmark Christmas: Celebrate Christmas!). The choir has made over 200 recordings and continues to produce albums.[78] For some live performances and albums, the choir has collaborated with large orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London, the Boston Pops Orchestra, and the Orchestra at Temple Square. The choir's own record label was formed in 2003.

• List of Mormon Tabernacle Choir Music Directors
• Salt Lake Tabernacle organ

• Berteaux, Kelsey (October 4, 2014), "Mormon Tabernacle Choir Fashion: 1888-Now", LDS Living, Deseret Books, archived from the original on October 10, 2014

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

• Tabernacle Choir Official site
• "Mormons on a Mission" article by Kirk Johnson, New York Times