The new president is already world famous The choir of the tabernacle in the Temple Square opened the framework for bright plans to radically expand the choir’s global influence during a virtual meeting with the choir on Thursday night.
President Mike Levitt has announced four new goals:
- Cover more countries in future international tours.
- Dramatically expand the choir’s digital audience.
- Diversify its composition.
- Play a greater role in the missionary efforts of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
At the same time, he announced that the choir had canceled a planned tour of Europe. A tour to Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Wales and Scotland was planned. 2020 but was first postponed 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and then again 2022.
“The recent surge in Omicron did not allow the choir to spend a long month preparing for the diplomatic and missionary goals of the tour,” he said. “While conditions may have changed by the summer to make the trip possible, circumstances simply do not allow us to prepare properly.”
Livit, a former Utah governor who also served as U.S. health and social services minister, said that when last August President Russell M. Nelson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints named him the new president of the choir. Saints, the head of the church asked him and his advisers to find ways to innovate and transform the choir in line with the church’s mission.
“President Nelson and his advisers have enthusiastically endorsed what we are going to discuss with you tonight,” Livit told the choir.
Livit said the four new targets announced on Thursday are the framework, and that more details will be provided over the next three months. He said that the goals will be realized in a few years.
Here are four goals:
Expand the choir’s digital audience
On social media, the audience of the Tabernacle Choir now has hundreds of thousands of subscribers. For example, The choir’s Twitter account has 116,600 followers. His Facebook page has 571,000 subscribers.
Livit said the choir and orchestra in Temple Square will now seek to reach tens of millions on these and other platforms.
Levitt said the choir will start with the abandonment of CDs and DVDs and move on to social media broadcasting as it happens on Choir YouTube channelwhich has 625,000 subscribers.
The choir gathers a group of experts at the church’s main office and beyond to begin their efforts on social media.
He also plans to invest heavily in information technology, said Gary Porter, one of Levitt’s advisers in the choir’s chairmanship.
Livit became the new president of the choir in August and added elders L. Whitney Clayton and Porter as advisers.
Maximize the missionary role of the choir
“It is often easier to start a gospel conversation by making a gift to a friend or stranger with sacred music than to ask direct questions about their faith,” Elder Clayton said. “We also believe that there are ways in which the choir and orchestra can give impetus to the church’s mission when they perform around the world.”
Diversify to reflect the church around the world
“An important part of this goal is for the choir to reflect the nature of the church’s global membership,” Livit said. “This has been a conversation for many years, and serious efforts have been made to include members whose legacy reflects the church around the world. The first presidency authorized the choir presidency to explore new alternatives that would help us achieve this goal. ”
Increase the visibility of the choir around the world
Levitt said the choir wants to tour more countries to make the choir more prominent internationally.
“We plan to be seen in more countries where the physical presence of the choir will matter, raising missionary work, inspiring member devotion, and building important friendships for the church,” he said.
Porter said the choir will also make significant investments in expanding the wardrobe’s production capacity and is looking for ways to increase and enhance the use of the Choral School.
Omicron again cancels rehearsals and choir performances
The initial outbreak of COVID-19 did not allow the choir to rehearse or perform together weekly live TV and radio broadcasts “Music and Spoken Word” for 555 days.
Chorus resumed rehearsals in September and live broadcasts of “Music and Spoken Word” in October.
Last month, however, the choir stopped rehearsals again when the Omicron outbreak worsened. He started airing his weekly show on January 9 again.
Now the choir preliminarily plans to resume its usual weekly schedule of rehearsals and live broadcasts of “Music and Spoken Word” on March 3, choir spokeswoman Kim Farah told Deseret News.
The Tabernacle Choir usually tours frequently. The choir has toured 10 times since 2000, mostly in the US and Canada. In 2016, the choir performed in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands.
The choir’s last tour was in 2018 when it traveled to California, British Columbia and Washington State.
The choir originally booked the following seats for the 2020 tour, which was postponed and finally canceled on Thursday:
- Konserthuset Stockholm in Stockholm.
- Finland Hall in Helsinki.
- DR Koncerthuset in Copenhagen, Denmark.
- Oslo, Norway.
- St. David’s Hall in Cardiff, Wales.
- Wales International Convention Center in Cardiff, Wales.
- Usher Hall in Edinburgh, Scotland.
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Additional information about the cancellation of the tour, including information about the return of tickets, will be published on tabchoir.org/tour.
The choir has its roots in 1847. It was called the Tabernacle Mormon Choir when the tabernacle was completed in 1867 and toured for the first time in 1893. Its name has changed to The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square in 2018.