After two-and-a-half years of planning, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is about to embark on its 26th major tour, this one to Europe from June 12-July 2. It will be the choir's 17th tour outside the United States.

Ten concerts in seven countries are on the choir's itinerary: London, England; Brussels, Belgium; Geneva, Switzerland; Turin, Italy; Rome, Italy; Marseilles, France; Barcelona, Spain; El Escorial, Spain; Madrid, Spain; and Lisbon, Portugal. (Please see schedule on this page.)Tabernacle Choir Pres. Wendell M. Smoot began working on plans for the 1998 tour in 1995. Meeting that year with President Gordon B. Hinckley, he suggested the possibility of the choir going to southern Europe and singing in major cities in which it had not previously performed.

A tour of "firsts" is the result of those early plans. With the exception of London - where the choir performed in 1955 and 1982 - the upcoming tour takes the singers to the other cities on its itinerary for the first time. Also, this tour will be the choir's first performances in Italy, Spain and Portugal.

After arriving in Rome, the choir will experience what, without a doubt, will be a tour highlight - performing in Accademia Santa Caecilia, a concert hall in Vatican City just a couple of blocks from St. Peter's Square. Another highlight will be a recital in a 500-year-old basilica at El Escorial, Spain.

Taking the choir on tour brings a two-fold accomplishment, according to Pres. Smoot. "The choir is, essentially, a missionary tool in that it has the opportunity to sing to people throughout the world and warm their hearts," he said. "Through its concert tours, the choir helps show to the world the type of individuals who are members of the Church and what the Church stands for.

"Also, it's important to go to different places in the world from time to time to give encouragement to the Church members in those areas who never have an opportunity to see or hear the choir, except through recordings. Although the choir broadcasts are carried throughout the United States and Canada, its broadcasts in many other countries, essentially, are few and far between, except for radio broadcasts that go on U.S. Armed Forces Radio, and to one or two countries where the `Music and the Spoken Word' broadcasts are picked up.

"Our tour will start in London, where the choir will do a concert in the Royal Albert Hall. Arrangements have been made with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) to broadcast the concert throughout the British Isles. The program itself will be carried on one of the most popular television shows of the BBC, `Songs of Praise.'

"The choir will be doing its weekly broadcast in London and in two other places on the tour, Geneva, Switzerland, and Barcelona, Spain. The broadcasts will be aired on the regularly scheduled programs on each of the three successive Sundays the choir is traveling in Europe."

Modes of transportation will include planes, buses, trains and a cruise ship. The tour will not be one of much leisure for the 325 singers. The tour's pace dictates rehearsals and performances within hours after the choir arrives in the various cities where concerts are scheduled.

Choir director Jerold Ottley described the concert programs as "wide ranging."

"We have learned that it's not wise to carry coals to Newcastle. In other words, we shouldn't try to do something for the audiences in Europe that they can do better for themselves," Brother Ottley said.

"Also, in each country, we will perform a piece that will be meaningful for the audience there because it was composed by someone in that country or it has some other connection to the country. In Brussels, we'll perform a piece by a Belgian composer, Flor Peeters. In Switzerland, we'll do a piece by Frank Martin, a Swiss composer. In Italy, we'll sing `Gloria' from `Messa de Gloria' by Pucini.

"We will perform quite a bit in Latin because Latin is the language of most historical sacred music. The European countries use it widely and understand what its implication is."

Brother Ottley said the choir will sing certain selections, such as "Come, Come, Ye Saints," in the language of each place it is visiting, with the exception of Brussels.

Because it is the 100th anniversary of American composer George Gershwin's birth, the choir will close its concerts with a medley of Gershwin songs. Other musical selections of Americana are also on the program, such as pieces by Aaron Copland and Meredith Wilson.

Hymns, oratorio, cantatas, madrigals, spirituals and folk songs will round out the tour's concert program.

"We've tried to create a program in which there will be something - at least one piece - that touches the heart of everyone attending the concert," he said.

He pointed out that, with one exception, the halls in which the choir will perform are major cultural center halls. He said that stepping onto the stages of these halls is like taking a "step into a history" of each place. The challenge, he said, is knowing the history of great music that has preceded the choir in each place and realizing that "we'd better live up to it. Every hall has its own history and we hope we will build upon that history."

Associate conductor Craig Jessop will join the choir for the first time on a foreign tour, but he is by no means a novice in conducting music abroad. Having been commander and conductor of the Band of the United States Air Forces in Europe from 1987-1991, he is well acquainted with the personality of European audiences.

"They love all kinds of music," he said. "Our tradition of choral singing is a western European choral tradition. They have excellent choirs in Europe; their expectation level and standards are very high. I think they will come with a critical listening ear to discover how we handle the choral repertoire. I have no doubt they will be delighted with what they hear. No one loves music more or takes it more seriously than the Europeans. Music is almost a necessity of life for them."

Brother Jessop said that while living in Germany as commander and conductor of the air forces band he learned that practically every little town has a singing society or band. "Even some of the smallest communities have their own opera, their own orchestra. Music is an essential part of life for them, not just an added-on part," he observed.

Since the first of March, choir members have been putting in extra time at rehearsals in preparation for the tour. In addition to their standard Thursday evening rehearsals, they've been rehearsing on Tuesday evenings and after the choir broadcasts each Sunday.