On Thursday and Friday, March 22–23, 2018, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square will present Handel’s Messiah in the Salt Lake Tabernacle on Temple Square. These performances continue a tradition begun in 2014 of performing Messiah live in the Tabernacle every two years. George Frideric Handel’s musical masterpiece, first performed in the spring of 1742, has become one of the world’s most beloved musical works. Composed by Handel in just 24 days, this 260-page work has been performed around the world for over 275 years.

2018 Messiah Soloists

The Choir is pleased to announce the talented soloists for the 2018 Messiah performances. They are Amanda Woodbury, soprano; Tamara Mumford, mezzo-soprano; Tyler Nelson, tenor; and Tyler Simpson, bass-baritone. 

Making her debut performance with the Choir, Amanda Woodbury was the 2014 Grand Final Winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, where she has performed six times. She is an alumna of LA Opera’s Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist program. She earned second-place and audience choice awards in Plácido Domingo’s prestigious Operalia competition. 

A native of Sandy, Utah, Tamara Mumford is a graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. Tamara made her debut there as Laura in Verdi’s Luisa Miller and since then has appeared in over 150 Metropolitan Opera performances. Tamara appeared in the Choir’s 2015 Christmas concerts and the subsequent PBS special and CD and DVD recordings, performing selections from Handel’s Messiah, and was the mezzo-soprano soloist on the Choir’s landmark Messiah recording released in 2016.

Making his debut with the Choir, Tyler Nelson is one of America’s most promising young tenors. Tyler has performed with the Utah Symphony/Utah Opera, New Orleans Opera, Dayton Opera and has been a soloist on the stages of the Kennedy Center and at Carnegie Hall. He appeared previously with the Temple Square Chorale and Orchestra at Temple Square in Mozart’s Requiem.

Tyler Simpson has sung on opera and concert stages around the world, including six consecutive seasons at the Metropolitan Opera, where he debuted in Verdi’s Don Carlo and performed in 18 productions. He appeared in the Choir’s 2015 Christmas concerts and the subsequent PBS special and CD and DVD recordings, performing selections from Handel’s Messiah.

Please plan to join the Choir, Orchestra, and these renowned soloists for the beautiful and uplifting music of Messiah in an unprecedented world gathering bringing together Christians around the world as well as fans of Handel’s beloved oratorio in a celebration of the birth, life, death, and Resurrection of Christ.