Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra prepare for 2024 tour to the Philippines

As The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square prepares for the second stop, within the Philippines, on the multiyear “Hope” tour, choir President Michael O. Leavitt remembers the live shows in Mexico City, Mexico — the primary tour stop. 

“It was just electric. The audience embraced it,” he said, recalling how the audience stood, clapped and sang together with the songs in Spanish. “They felt the message we had hoped to impart. And I think we can have the identical experience within the Philippines.”

The choir and orchestra’s tour within the Philippines from Feb. 20-29 is the primary time the group of volunteer musicians have been within the country. They were last in Asia in 1979 with live shows in Japan and Korea.

With 853,254 Church members across 1,272 congregations and 23 missions, the Philippines has probably the most members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Asia. Outside of the U.S., there are only more members in Mexico (1.5 million) and Brazil (1.4 million). 

For the world tour, “we’ve made the choice that we’ll give attention to areas of the world where there are large concentrations of Latter-day Saints and where missionary work has a vibrancy where we could have the flexibility to assist,” President Leavitt said.

The Philippines is a majority Christian nation, with most Filipinos identifying as Catholics. 

“We are offering a message of hope through Christ. And if there’s any country on the planet where that message will probably be well received, it’s the Philippines. It’s a vibrant Christian nation  where people speak openly about it, and we will sing and perform the identical way,” President Leavitt said. 

Leo Marcelo, a first-year choir member who’s from the Philippines, said it’s a “dream come true” for the choir and orchestra to go to his home country. 

“You see that you simply see them on TV,” he said of how many individuals have heard the choir’s music. “That’s like a world away.” 

He’s been helping the choir with the Tagalog pronunciations for a couple of of the songs it’s singing. Tagalog is the most-spoken language within the Philippines. 

“The Filipinos will just love [it]. Even the hassle is just going to be so appreciated,” he said.

Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra’s ‘Hope’ tour

Previously, the choir and orchestra’s tours or travel assignments have been through many countries in a single trip and appearing mostly at small concert halls, President Leavitt said in a previous interview with the Church News. 

“We’re now changing that and appearing in fewer places, but in much larger proportions,” he said. 

Now, the choir and orchestra are doing a multiyear, multicity “Hope” tour, where they will a city and doing multiple live shows at larger venues. 

In 2023, the choir and orchestra’s first stop was in Mexico, where the choir and orchestra performed on the Toluca Cathedral and two live shows in Mexico City’s National Auditorium, which seats about 10,000 people. The two live shows within the National Auditorium featured guest artist singers Adassa and Alex Melecio and radio host Mariano Osorio and shared messages and songs of hope. 

The live shows marked a few firsts for the choir and orchestra — the primary tour concert to be livestreamed and the primary where tickets were free. 

“During 2023, we were in Mexico and had a pleasant trip there. We performed live for nearly 25,000 people; we had 500,000 individuals who watched the streamed version of our concert,” he said. 

In the Philippines, two of the live shows, Feb. 27-28, will probably be on the SM Mall of Asia Arena, which may seat nearly 9,000. Registration in January for tickets for each live shows lasted a couple of hours as organizers received the utmost variety of registrations. The concert on Feb. 28 will probably be livestreamed on the choir’s YouTube channel, and native Church leaders are encouraging people to collect to observe it. 

“In terms of its proportion and the form of production we’re doing, [it’s] like our Christmas special,” President Leavitt said. 

Broadway singer and actress Lea Salonga, who’s from the Philippines, will probably be the featured guest artist on the concert. Salonga previously performed with the choir and orchestra through the 2022 Christmas concert, “Season of Light: Christmas With The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square,” including “Payapang Daigdig” — a Filipino song that translates to “Peaceful World” and might be considered a counterpart to “Silent Night.” 

The phrase choir officials are using is “anchor and radiate,” said Karmel Newell, the choir’s director of member support.

“We can go to a spot all over the world and radiate from there, and from there and there and there,” she said. 

The choir’s social channels featured a model of the stage design, including a standard welcome arch manufactured from bamboo. 

Choir leaders are also implementing lessons learned in Mexico. 

“We’re traveling so much greater than we were, than the choir has traditionally traveled,” President Leavitt said. That includes working to develop higher travel and logistical tools. 

“We now have a travel app that enables us to have instantaneous contact with greater than 500 people to measure their health and well-being to seek out out where they’re, to make sure that they’re on the bus or within the hotel. That looks as if a small detail, but it surely’s huge. We have the flexibility to not only message but to get the heartbeat check on how persons are doing,” he said. 

Also, President Leavitt said the choir has been working more effectively with the Church’s Philippines Area presidency in working toward its objectives. 

Health protocols have been updated for this tour, too. 

“We had illness in Mexico, and it was each uncomfortable … and it was something we wish to avoid,” he said. Prior to leaving on Feb. 20, all choir and orchestra members, staff and others happening tour will probably be tested 4 times for COVID-19. Also, the choir’s medical team and others are working to coach those traveling on things that can lead to travelers’ illnesses. 

“All of those are ways through which we’re recovering,” he said. 

In addition to physical preparation, President Leavitt is encouraging the choir to be spiritually prepared. 

“We are on a mission — every member of the choir is a missionary. And our job is to be a conduit of a message of importance to those that hear. And our ability to deliver that, in spiritual terms, depends upon our readiness as people and as missionaries to accomplish that,” President Leavitt said.  “And that requires preparation. And it requires us to undergo the method that every individual uses to realize a way of closeness to the Spirit and to our Heavenly Father. And it’s, I believe, a vital a part of preparation for the sort of endeavor.”

Mission statement and objectives

The three words “throughout the world” added to The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square’s mission statement have modified the angle of the choir and orchestra’s leadership and the direction of the choir.  

“An important change for the Tabernacle Choir has been a change in our mission statement. Our mission statement was amended so as to add very vital words: ‘throughout the world.’ And we’ve an objective now to be a choir that’s each known all over the world and that represents members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who live throughout the world,” President Leavitt said in a previous interview with the Church News.

The expanded mission statement now reads: “The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square performs music that inspires people throughout the world to attract closer to the divine and feel God’s love for His children.”

This direction has modified how the choir and orchestra travels, inviting participants from all over the world to perform with the choir at general conferences and expanding the languages of the weekly “Music & the Spoken Word.”

Also, the choir’s leadership has 4 objectives: reflect the worldwide membership of the Church, to be more visible on the planet, expand the choir’s digital audience and magnify the choir’s missionary role. 

Global participants

At the April and October 2023 general conferences, each had 10 singers from all over the world singing with the choir through its global participant initiative. 

“The Tabernacle Choir, in fact, represents The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is a world church, and the choir must be representative of all of those members,” President Leavitt said. 

Newell noted that there are currently 44 global participants from 25 countries. “This is an inspired program that basically helps members of the Church feel their covenant belonging all all over the world. We have, for instance, at these two international live shows in Mexico, and in addition within the Philippines, we’ve Filipino and Mexican singers who’re native from that area who sang in Mexico and who will probably be singing within the Philippines right alongside the local choir members. So it’s this sense of we’re all on this together, all of us belong, we’re all covenant makers and striving to work together toward common goals.” 

President Leavitt said that the Tabernacle Choir meets about 150 times a yr, including rehearsals and performances, “to take care of the highly skilled polish that it has.” 

The global participants are those that meet every qualification of the Tabernacle Choir, aside from the requirement to live inside 100 miles of Salt Lake City. 

“They work hard to organize, and after they come, they fit right in. And, I’d add, [they bring] an enormously powerful spirit of brother and sisterhood with members of the choir who’re there year-round,” President Leavitt added. 

‘Music & the Spoken Word’ expanding in Spanish, Portuguese

The choir’s weekly broadcast of “Music & the Spoken Word,” which began in 1929, began a Spanish version in July 2023, including Spanish-speaking narrators quite than a voice dubbed over announcer Lloyd Newell’s voice. It’s available on The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square’s Spanish YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/@elcorodeltabernaculo.

A Portuguese version is within the works. 

“Now, we’re within the early stages of learning how you can do this, and we needed to expand the audience access points. We needed to get television and radio stations in those countries. So we’re working hard to seek out them in Brazil and South America and in Central America,” President Leavitt said. “And it’s going just superb; we’re recovering and higher at it. But there will probably be a day when our audience is large, and through which we’ve learned the teachings we want to to achieve them in their very own language.”

How to hearken to the Tabernacle Choir

The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra’s music is obtainable on several streaming channels, akin to Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, Pandora and Amazon Music.

“Music allows me to feel and to sense my life within the context of something that’s everlasting. And I actually think that’s what President [Russell M.] Nelson means when he says, ‘Think celestial.’ I believe it’s about living our lives in a context that’s larger than today. And listening to sacred music and serving within the Tabernacle Choir has been a continuing reminder of that for me,” Leavitt said. 

And since he’s been the choir president, President Leavitt said he’s come to understand the commitment of the 360-voice choir and the orchestra musicians, 85 of whom perform at a time from a roster of 200.

“I’ve come to know — in higher, more precise terms — the remarkable dedication and sacrifice of individuals in The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square and the orchestra. They put in lots of hours. They sacrifice enormously, but additionally they receive satisfaction,” Leavitt said. “I’ve come to understand how vital it’s that we’re investing their sacrifice in probably the most efficient things possible, that we never take with no consideration the value they paid to have the option to supply the worth that we’re going to make available. And so making it available in probably the most efficient way is something that I’ve come to feel quite deeply about.”