SALT LAKE CITY — The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square is canceling several concerts and making changes to its public broadcasts and rehearsals due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The organization announced Friday that beginning Sunday, March 15, it will not be doing live “Music and the Spoken Word” broadcasts.
The change is to remain in effect for at least the next few weeks, according to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints spokesman Daniel Woodruff.
In the meantime, previously recorded programs will be broadcast. Airing repeat performances has been done in the past, when the choir and orchestra go on tour, Woodruff said.
The broadcast has aired every week during its 90-year history. The choir performed “Music and the Spoken Word” without a live audience from March 1942-August 1945, when the Tabernacle on Temple Square closed to the public as a precaution during World War II, according to the Deseret News.
Additionally, the choir and Orchestra at Temple Square’s “Messiah” concert scheduled for Easter weekend will not be live.
Since 2014, the choir and orchestra have performed Handel’s “Messiah” at Easter every two years in the Tabernacle, according to thetabernaclechoir.org.
This year, the previously recorded 2018 concert will be streamed on the ChurchofJesusChrist.org, TheTabernacleChoir.org and on the Choir’s YouTube and Facebook pages. The program will also be broadcast over the church satellite system on April 10 and 11 at 7:30 p.m. MT.
It is anticipated that the choir and orchestra’s performance of Handel’s “Messiah,” featuring guest soloists, will resume for Easter 2021, according to a news release.
The public spring concert by the Orchestra at Temple Square and Temple Square Chorale, scheduled for March 20 and 21, has also been canceled and will not be rescheduled, according to the release.
The weekly Bells on Temple Square and Tabernacle Choir rehearsals, held Wednesdays and Thursdays in the Tabernacle, are also temporarily closed to the public. In addition, the daily organ recitals in the Tabernacle will be temporarily suspended until further notice beginning Sunday, March 15.