Five years after its last international tour, the world-famous Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square is finally taking its music on the road again.
The choir and the Orchestra at Temple Square will perform two concerts at the National Auditorium in Mexico City on June 17-18. They also will film a new music video during their weeklong visit to Mexico.
The trip is actually the launch of a four-year world tour called “Hope” that represents a major reset for the choir. After the COVID-19 pandemic shut down its traditional every-other-year tour schedule, new choir leaders set a new course for how the 360 singers and 110 instrumentalists will travel.
The plan is to take the choir on more frequent shorter trips to more countries than ever before, the new choir president, Mike Leavitt, announced in February 2022. The goal is to increase the choir’s international footprint.
“Our goal is to magnify the choir’s impact throughout the world by helping people feel God’s love for his children,” Leavitt said in a news release. “Our performances will be free. Many will be livestreamed so local congregations in the regions we visit can invite their friends and communities to participate.”
Future locations and dates for the choir’s ambitious new travel schedule have not yet been released.
The choir’s last tours were to British Columbia, Washington state and California in 2018, and a 2016 European swing through Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and Netherlands.
When Leavitt announced the choir’s future travel objectives in 2022, he also announced the cancellation of what was supposed to be a 2020 Heritage Tour to Europe. The tour to Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Wales and Scotland had been scheduled for 2020, but the pandemic prompted postponement first to 2021 and then again to 2022.
The choir has performed at the National Auditorium in Mexico City before, in 1972.
The June concerts will feature guest artists from Mexico and reflect the musicality of Mexican culture, the news release said. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mexico City will distribute free tickets.
The June 17 concert will be livestreamed at https://www.thetabernaclechoir.org/mexicotour2023.
“We feel the greatest gift our music can give the world at this time is hope. That’s what I want people to feel from our music,” said the choir’s director, Mack Wilberg.
The choir will also join service activities in Mexico City.
The choir’s weekly broadcast of “Music & the Spoken Word” is being produced now in Spanish and Portuguese, part of new pilot programs designed to increase the group’s reach.
Earlier this month, 10 international singers joined the Tabernacle Choir to perform at the church’s annual general conference.
The choir’s four new main objectives, announced by Leavitt in February 2022, are:
- Reach more countries on future international tours.
- Dramatically expand the choir’s digital audience.
- Diversify its membership.
- Play a larger role in the missionary efforts of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.