The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square will miss its long-standing live broadcast of “Music and the Spoken Word” this Sunday after COVID-19 and other illnesses sidelined many of its members.
Kelly Smoot, a spokesperson for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said in an email Thursday that a couple of choir members tested positive for the virus after arriving in Mexico City for the group’s first international trip since pre-pandemic 2019.
Those performers were isolated and treated, but since returning to Utah, Smoot said, more members experienced symptoms and several have tested positive for the virus. Other members, meanwhile, are grappling with travel-related sicknesses such as gastrointestinal ailments.
“To allow the choir the opportunity to rest and recover, and to prevent the further spread of any illness, the choir has canceled this week’s [Thursday] rehearsal and Sunday’s live taping of ‘Music and the Spoken Word,’” Smoot wrote. “This week’s television and radio broadcast was recorded in Mexico and will be aired as planned.”
“Music and the Spoken Word” is the longest continuously running network broadcast in radio history, having been on the airwaves for more than 90 years. During the height of the pandemic, the show featured previously recorded performances.
The performance is also broadcast on KSL-TV. This week’s show was recorded in Mexico on June 18. The church said in a June 14 news release that special “Spoken Word” segments were to be recorded at various landmarks throughout Mexico City.
Smoot said the recent spread of the virus didn’t hinder the ability of the choir and orchestra, featuring about 400 singers and musicians, to attend all of their concerts and obligations in Mexico. The troupe, she said, always travels with medical staff.
Members’ health is monitored even when they are not traveling, and cases of COVID-19 occur “with some regularity,” Smoot said. When cases of any transmissible illness occur — including COVID-19 — members are not seated in the choir loft until they are no longer symptomatic.
Right now, travelers face no COVID-related restrictions when flying to Mexico.
The choir, the premier performing troupe of the Utah-based faith, flew to Mexico on June 13 and performed concerts June 15 at the Cathedral of Toluca and June 17 and 18 at the National Auditorium in Mexico City. It was the first leg of the choir’s four-year world tour.
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square perform inside the Cathedral of Toluca in Mexico on Thursday, June 15, 2023.
Emeritus general authority Seventy L. Whitney Clayton, first counselor in the choir presidency, has said the choir and orchestra plan to travel to Asia, Europe and Latin America over the next three years.
In 2020, the choir was scheduled to embark on the “Heritage Tour” in Europe, but the tour was called off due to the pandemic. It was postponed in 2021 and again canceled last year.