The Mormon Tabernacle Choir was launched on Aug. 22, 1847, just 29 days after the pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley.
After the Tabernacle on Temple Square in the heart of Salt Lake City was completed, the choir performed there for more than a hundred years. Millions have heard the group’s music via a weekly devotional radio program, “Music and the Spoken Word,” which The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints started in 1929, making it the longest continuously running network broadcast in history.
The show is inspiring to insiders and outsiders but never dogmatic. Ronald Reagan called the troupe “America’s Choir.” The famed choir has sung at seven U.S. presidential inaugurations, 13 World Fairs, as well as the 2002 Winter Olympics, and toured in dozens of countries.
In 2018, the choir changed its name to The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, and, in 2020, it was sidelined by the global pandemic.
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Tabernacle Choir President Mike Leavitt, shown in June 2024, says the choir's makeup seeks to reflect the global membership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
On this week’s show, former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, former Health and Human Services secretary and the choir’s current president, talks about how the choir navigated those changes and challenges, the group’s mission, and what’s in the future for the church’s most visible goodwill ambassadors.
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