More exciting news this week! The Tabernacle Choir has announced an International Tour for 2020 to Scandinavia and the UK!
The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square will travel internationally from Thursday June 25th – Thursday July 16th, 2020.
The 22 Day Tour will be the longest tour I have ever experienced since my first tour in 2009. The second longest tour was our 19-day 2016 European Tour.
CELEBRATING OUR HERITAGE
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints owe its tremendous growth in its formative years to the missionaries who were sent without purse or script throughout the world – particularly gaining success with European converts – all of which immigrated primarily from these tour countries.
My direct maternal ancestors were taught the gospel in Denmark and made an arduous immigration pilgrimage from their villages to America by ship (suffering tragedies of buring children at sea) and then walking a thousand miles across the plains of America “westward to Zion” in the territory of Deseret (modern day Salt Lake City, Utah).
My paternal ancestors hail from Norway. Additional convert ancestors hail from England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. (My DNA testing revaled that at least 13% of me is Irish! Who knew?)
The Tabernacle Choir has deep roots in Wales. It was our Welsh pioneers who brought their tremendous musical talents singing across the pioneer trail to Utah, and from the very beginning of settlement in Salt Lake Valley, prophet Brigham Young called a gifted Welsh convert named John Perry to organize and lead an official Choir of Saints.
To be born Welsh is to be born privledged. Not with a silver spoon in your mouth, but with music in your blood and poetry in your soul.
This origin story was the featured narrative of the 2010 Christmas Concert presented by Welsh actor Michael York (singing sensation David Archuleta was the co-star).
The hills of Wales was their schoolhouse, and the Spirit of God was their teacher.
From its humble beginnings the Choir grew and evolved into the hugely popular and internationally renoun Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square (and Bell Choir, too!).
On June 25th, 2020 the Choir will literally come full circle to its birthplace. I get a lump in my throat thinking of Choir and Orchestra members being able to sing praise where our pioneer ancestors sang, pray where they prayed, and walk where they walked. Never in their wildest dreams when they were joining a small religion, often being disowned by their families, cast out of their homes, ostracized by their communties and leaving their homelands could those ancestors of mine imagine how the future would look for the church they were building and sacrificing for. Nor could they have imagined how a handful of Welsh singers could someday grow into a vast chorus performing for the world on a weekly, daily even hourly basis thanks to the miracle of incomprehensible technology!
If you are interested in attending one of the 2020 Concerts, be sure to check the venues for ticket sales, and mark your calendars!
Blessings, Holly
Latter-day Soprano 
How exciting is this tour. I wish I was in the choir. I’m sure this will be a blessing for you and the other members of the choir. I’ve had my DNA done too and I’m 55% English/Welsh, 37% Irish/Scottish and a small percentage of Swedish. I don’t know of any relatives that were LDS though. I know you will have a wonderful time on this trip. God bless you and the Choir and give you a successful and safe tour. Love you, Lynne
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