St. David’s Hall in Cardiff Wales. Photo Credit: © Kiran Ridley
The world-renowned Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square has announced plans for their international tour, dubbed the Heritage Tour, in 2020. The tour is scheduled from Thursday, 25 June 2020 through Thursday, 16 July 2020. During the 22-day tour, the Choir will be performing in six cities in four Nordic Countries – Stockholm. Helsinki, Copenhagen, Oslo, Cardiff, and Edinburgh – and the United Kingdom in the following venues:
June 27: Konserthuset Stockholm in Stockholm, Sweden
June 30: Finlandia Hall in Helsinki, Finland
July 2: DR Koncerthuset in Copenhagen, Denmark
July 7: (Venue to be announced) in Oslo, Norway
July 10: St. David’s Hall (invitation only) in Cardiff, Wales
July 11: International Convention Centre Wales in Cardiff, Wales
July 14: Usher Hall in Edinburgh, Scotland
The performance on 10 July 2020, at St. David’s Hall in Cardiff, Wales, will be a benefit concert with attendance by invitation only. Ticket information for the other venues will be announced at a later date.
Ron Jarrett, president of the Choir, stated that the name of the tour is a tribute to the early converts to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (often mistakenly referred to as “the Mormon Church”) with musical talents from Wales and other areas that the Choir will visit on the upcoming tour. He said, “We stand on the shoulders of these musical pioneers who created a legacy that has influenced the entire world for good. What an honor it will be to share the joy and peace the music of the Choir brings in some of the very places where it all began.”
Usher Hall in Edinburgh Scotland. Photo Credit: © Real Edinburgh
The first time that the Tabernacle Choir traveled to Europe was on a seven-week concert tour in 1955. Since then, the Choir has traveled to Europe five times on tour: to western and central Europe in 1973, northern Europe in 1982, Eastern Europe in 1991, southern Europe in 1998, and central Europe in 2016. The Heritage Tour will be the first time that they have visited Wales or Scotland since the first European tour in 1955. The Choir first visited the four Nordic cities on their tour schedule 37 years ago, in 1982.
Since its first tour outside Utah in 1893, the Choir has toured extensively at home in the United States, as well as, abroad. In addition to its previous European tours, the Choir has performed worldwide, from Israel and Russia to Japan and Australia. The Choir has also performed at the inaugurations of seven U.S. presidents. Since 2005, a complement of approximately 65 members of the Orchestra has also traveled on tour with the Choir.
The Choir, which is comprised of 360 voices, is frequently accompanied at home by the Orchestra, whose member roster totals over 200. The Choir and Orchestra can also be heard weekly as part of the world’s longest continuing network broadcast, Music and the Spoken Word. The 30-minute program airs on over 2,000 radio, TV, cable and satellite stations worldwide.
The Choir and Orchestra are also active recording artists with their own recording label. Since being founded in 2003, the Choir and Orchestra have released over 90 CDs, DVDs, books and other products. The Choir’s current CD release, Let Us All Press On: Hymns of Praise and Inspiration was number one on Billboard’s Traditional Classical Albums chart for 3 weeks at its release. This marked the 13th time an album from the Choir has received such an honor.
