Mormon Church

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is touring the central United States this summer. Named America’s Choir by Ronald Reagan, they are considered an important part of American culture.

Brigham Young, the second president and prophet of the church, knew the Saints, as Mormons are often called, would need to keep their spirits up as they moved west after being forced from their homes in Illinois. When he put together the small group of people who would make the initial trek to Utah, he included musicians. In fact, every wagon company included at least one musician. Twenty-nine days after the first Mormons settled in Utah, a conference was held on August 22, 1847. A small choir sang at this conference, and the church has actually had a standing choir even before this, since the earliest days of the church in Ohio and Illinois. The first large choir was organized in 1829 under conductor George Careless.

In 1987, the church built a beautiful tabernacle that required four years to construct. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir took its name from the building and has performed there since it was built. This popular attraction has been named both a historic landmark and an engineering landmark, due to its amazing acoustics.

When at home, the choir is accompanied by the world-renowned Tabernacle organ. This amazing creation has more than 11,000 pipes. The original organ was built in Australia and shipped to California. It was then carried by twelve mules to Utah. When the Tabernacle was built, Joseph Ridges, who had built that first organ, built a new one that was even larger. It has been enlarged five times since then. Five organists, three men and two women, currently play this organ.

Since the choir’s beginnings as a local group, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir has become popular around the world, and is loved by both Mormons and non-Mormons. They have won an Emmy and a Grammy, and have performed for ten American presidents, including four inaugurations. They have five gold records and two platinum records.

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this choir is that it, and the orchestra that accompanies it, are entirely made up of volunteers. The audition process is arduous, and only the most talented and dedicated performers are accepted. They rehearse one or two evenings each week and perform each Sunday morning during the broadcast of Music and the Spoken Word. Every other summer, they go on tour somewhere in the world for a few weeks. Most have full-time jobs with companies willing to accommodate the demands of the choir and all must live within 100 miles of Salt Lake City.

The audition process consists of a lengthy set of tests which are sometimes daunting even to trained singers. It includes a questionnaire concerning moral worthiness, age, body size (due to costuming needs), health, and church membership. Applicants must also submit a very complex audition tape. Those accepted for the next step are brought in for a music skills inventory test and a music theory exam which is very challenging, but does not necessarily require formal training if one prepares at home and has innate musical talent. Passing this leads to an in-person audition. At this audition, they sing—alone—a hymn of their choice and a complicated choral piece assigned in advance. They are also required to do some sight reading. If a student is rejected at this point, he is given advice about how to train for the next year’s audition.

If a student makes it this far, he is accepted not into the choir, but into The Temple Square Chorale and Choir Training School. For three months, he will receive formal musical training. Established members of the choir also participate in this choral in rotation, to upgrade their skills and renew their formal training. They will do a concert and participate in a television broadcast. This allows staff to see if a candidate can cope with the pace, schedule, and pressure, and is able to perform well as a disciplined member of a choir. Most people accepted into this stage become members of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, but some do not. This strenuous process is the reason the choir is so highly respected.

It may be difficult to imagine in this day of glitzy, immoral celebrities, that a church choir could win the hearts of Americans who may know little of the choir’s faith. However, in 2007, they filled Denver’s Pepsi Stadium to capacity—15,000 seats. Three days later, the Rolling Stones sold only 13,000 tickets to the concert they played in the same stadium. Certainly that’s a statistic that would surprise most people, but testifies to the power of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to capture America’s attention and respect.