SALT LAKE CITY — The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square has postponed its summer tour for a year.
The 2020 Heritage Tour, scheduled for June 25-July 16, will now take place in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a news release sent Monday morning.
The choir was scheduled to perform in the following locations:
- June 27: Konserthuset Stockholm in Stockholm.
- June 30: Finlandia Hall in Helsinki.
- July 2: DR Koncerthuset in Copenhagen, Denmark.
- July 7: in Oslo, Norway, at a venue not yet to be announced.
- July 10: St. David’s Hall in Cardiff, Wales (by invitation only).
- July 11: International Convention Centre Wales in Cardiff, Wales.
- July 14: Usher Hall in Edinburgh, Scotland.
In 2021, the tour will visit the same cities. Revised dates and ticket information will be published over the next few weeks. The choir asked those interested not to contact the concert venues until the choir releases additional details.
Some expressed sadness on social media but the vast majority who commented on Instagram and Facebook about the decision were grateful the choir would still visit the same cities.
“Yay, hurrah, you (will) come anyway,” wrote Helle Thor Hirschmann of Næstved, Denmark, “but a year later. Better and safer.”
Stella Bolton, of the United Kingdom, already had purchased tickets for this summer.
“So very sad,” she wrote on Facebook, “... was really looking forward to it. Never mind, it will be worth the wait.”
Some felt bad for choir members who will finish their 20th and final year with the group this year.
The pandemic has interrupted all of the choir’s usual activities since mid-March.
The 360 singers have not been able to conduct weekly practices or the weekly broadcast “Music and the Spoken Word,” a program that is in both the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame and the National Radio Hall of Fame.
Music director Mack Wilberg told reporters last week he had not met with the choir even virtually since it ceased practices.
Mack Wilburg, music director for The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, participates in a news conference on Thursday, April 23, 2020. Wilburg and others released a new logo for the choir during the news conference, which was held by Zoom video conference due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
IRI
Earlier this month, the pandemic prevented the choir’s traditional appearance at the church’s international general conference. Instead, the church broadcast performances the choir recorded as the pandemic began to spread, as well as past recorded performances.
Last week, the choir released a new logo with the name of the choir and seven gold organ pipes.
During that news conference, choir leaders said they would provide more details this week about the choir’s new CD, scheduled to be released in May.
The Tabernacle Choir tours frequently. Since 2000, the choir has toured 10 times, mostly in the United States and Canada. In 2016, the choir performed in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands.
The choir has roots that date to 1847, was named the Mormon Tabernacle Choir when the Tabernacle was completed in 1867 and first toured in 1893. Its name changed to The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square in 2018.