Renamed The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square in 2018, the ensemble long known as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir has long ranked among the globe’s most celebrated and skilled vocal groups. Tied directly to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—the body also called the LDS or Mormon Church—its singers must belong to that faith, receive endorsement from the temple in Salt Lake City, and reside inside a one-hundred-mile radius of that city.
The group was established soon after Brigham Young led his followers into the Salt Lake City region, delivering its debut performance on 22 August 1847, a mere twenty-nine days later. Initially modest in scale, the choir expanded both in numbers and ability once John Parry became its first official conductor. When the present Tabernacle opened in 1867, the ensemble numbered 150 voices—the largest such body then active anywhere in the United States. Growth continued after George Careless took the podium in 1873. Three hundred singers participated in the first of the hundreds of recordings the choir would eventually issue, a 1910 session that still leaves it among the largest standing choral organizations worldwide. Its weekly broadcast, Music and the Word, began on Salt Lake City’s KSL in 1929 and remains on the air, placing it among the longest continuously running radio programs on record.
By the 1950s the choir had polished its tone sufficiently to earn recognition well beyond LDS circles and had instituted a standing concert series. Its 1959 release The Battle Hymn of the Republic captured a Grammy, while numerous other discs reached the top of sales rankings and earned gold or platinum certification. National and international tours have taken the singers to more than two dozen countries and a dozen world’s fairs; they have also been heard on national radio following the deaths of presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy, and they have sung at multiple presidential inaugurations, among them Donald Trump’s in 2017. The choir launched its own label in 2003 and has adapted readily to newer platforms, most notably with a 2020 video of the hymn Come Thou Font of Every Blessing that has accumulated more than ten million views.
Both major orchestras and popular soloists appear regularly with the choir; its annual Christmas programs have spotlighted Gladys Knight, Kristin Chenoweth, and Renée Fleming. Its catalogue embraces patriotic selections and concert works alongside sacred repertoire. Contemporary scores appear infrequently, yet the group did record the Requiem by its present music director, Mack Wilberg, in 2009. The 2018 name change followed official LDS guidance on the word “Mormon,” and the first album issued under the new designation, Angels Among Us, appeared in 2019.
