Following its 2018 rebranding as The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, the ensemble long known as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir has ranked among the planet’s most celebrated and skilled choral organizations. Linked to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—commonly referred to as the LDS or Mormon Church—its singers must belong to that faith and secure an endorsement from the Salt Lake City temple, while living inside a 100-mile radius of that site.
The group originated right after Brigham Young guided his followers into the Salt Lake City vicinity, offering its debut concert on August 22, 1847, just 29 days after the arrival. Early numbers remained limited until John Parry became the first official conductor and began lifting both size and technical command. When the present Tabernacle opened in 1867, 150 voices took part, then the largest roster of any American choir. Growth continued once George Careless stepped in as director in 1873. Three hundred members created the first of the ensemble’s many hundreds of recordings in 1910, and it still counts among the world’s largest permanently formed choral bodies. A weekly broadcast titled Music and the Word debuted on Salt Lake City’s KSL radio in 1929 and has run ever since, placing it among the globe’s longest-lived radio series.
Through ongoing refinement the choir extended its reach beyond Mormon circles, mounting a steady concert schedule by the 1950s. Its 1959 release The Battle Hymn of the Republic captured a Grammy Award, while numerous recordings climbed sales rankings and earned gold and platinum certifications. National and international tours have taken the singers to more than two dozen countries and a dozen world’s fairs; they also sang on nationwide radio after the deaths of presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy. Several presidential inaugurations have featured the choir, among them Donald Trump’s in 2017. In 2003 the ensemble launched its own record label and has since adapted readily to newer platforms; a 2020 video of the hymn Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing exceeded 10,000,000 views.
Both classical orchestras and pop performers appear alongside the choir, whose yearly Christmas programs have included Gladys Knight, Kristin Chenoweth, and Renée Fleming. Its catalog blends patriotic pieces and classical works with sacred repertoire. Contemporary scores appear infrequently, yet the group did record the Requiem by its present music director, Mack Wilberg, in 2009. Aligning with LDS policy on the word “Mormon,” the choir adopted the name The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square in 2018 and issued the album Angels Among Us under that title the following year.
