Tabernacle Choir begins summer tour
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The Mormon Tabernacle Choir embarked on a two-week summer tour June 21, taking 310 singers and 60 members of the Orchestra at Temple Square to perform nine concerts in seven cities in two countries.
The first stop scheduled on the tour was Toronto's Roy Thomson Hall for matinee and evening performances June 22. The choir's appearance in Toronto had been long anticipated: it was to have performed there in June 2003 but the concert was cancelled because of the re-emergence of SARS (a severe, contagious respiratory illnes). In announcing the cancellation of the concert four years ago, choir officers promised to keep Toronto in mind when scheduling another tour within close proximity to the Canadian province of Ontario.
In addition to Toronto, the choir will perform in Chautauqua, New York, June 23; Cleveland, Ohio, June 25; Chicago, Ill., June 27; Cincinnati, Ohio, June 29, Nashville, Tenn., June 30, and Memphis, Tenn., July 2. (Details of the concert tour can be found on the choir's Web site: mormontabernaclechoir.org.)
In addition to two performances on one day in Toronto, the choir will perform a matinee and evening concert the next day at Chautauqua Amphitheater. The choir will perform at three other prestigious outdoor summer venues: with the Blossom Festival in Cleveland, followed by the Ravinia Music Festival in Chicago, and at the Riverbend Music Center in Cincinnati with the Cincinnati Pops. The concluding concerts are to be at two Tennessee venues: the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville and the FedEx Forum in Memphis.
The choir will draw from its extensive repertoire. Performances will include choral masterworks, hymns, spirituals and folk songs. In a press release, music director Craig Jessop said: "We look forward to bringing the choir and orchestra to these great music festivals and venues. Our repertoire will include works from the masters of classical composition to famed Broadway tunes, and there should be something to please everyone who attends."
The concert program will also feature selections from the choir's spring 2007 CD release, "Showtime! Music from Broadway and Hollywood."
The choir and orchestra left Salt Lake City on three charter planes. Required for the tour are 11 buses, four luggage trucks and four semi-trailers for instruments, risers, lights and sound equipment. The choir will return from Memphis on July 3 by charter planes.
