The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square will remain in Salt Lake City again this summer.
The Heritage Tour through Europe that had been postponed from the summer of 2020 to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic now has been pushed back again, to 2022.
The choir and orchestra still plan to follow the same itinerary through Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Wales and Scotland, but they will release the revised dates and ticket information over the next few weeks, according to a brief news release issued Friday morning.
“Until that time, patrons are asked not to contact the concert venues until further details are available,” the release said.
The choir had booked the following locations for 2020:
- Konserthuset Stockholm in Stockholm.
- Finlandia Hall in Helsinki.
- DR Koncerthuset in Copenhagen, Denmark.
- Oslo, Norway at an announced venue.
- St. David’s Hall in Cardiff, Wales (by invitation only).
- International Convention Centre Wales in Cardiff, Wales.
- Usher Hall in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Last year, fans of the choir and orchestra expressed sadness on social media but looked forward to the tour arriving this year.
Others felt bad for choir members would finish their 20th and final year with the group this year and miss the tour. Now another 20th-year class will graduate without the tour.
The pandemic has interrupted all of the choir’s usual activities since mid-March 2020.
The 360 singers have not conducted weekly practices. In fact, they have not met as a group, in person or digitally, since the pandemic began. Last year, the choir announced plans to audition new singers but eventually abandoned the process.
The pandemic also halted the live weekly broadcasts of “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.
Instead, past performances have been rebroadcast. The pandemic also has kept the choir from its traditional live appearances at general conferences of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Instead, the church used past performances of hymns recorded by the choir for its general conferences in April and October 2020. The church’s next general conference is scheduled next month, April 3-4.
The Tabernacle Choir usually tours frequently. The choir has toured 10 times since 2000, mostly in the United States and Canada. In 2016, the choir performed in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands.
The choir’s roots date to 1847. It 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.