NEW YORK CITY — The Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the West Point Band joined musical forces to thrill an audience of more than 10,000 spectators at the 2015 Fourth of July concert, “Music Under the Stars.” Four thousand cadets, including the new freshman class at West Point, arrived in military formation for the Independence Day gala on Trophy Point overlooking the Hudson River. Read More

The Last Word

Daily Tour Diary 14

By Melinda Baros

On the final day of tour, this first-timer will try to encapsulate the last 14 days in just a few words. I will long remember the beautiful venues of Carnegie Hall, Saratoga, and Wang Theater. I reveled in the socializing and sightseeing, first-class meals, and service fit for royalty. We endured long bus rides, and exhausting hours of rehearsal and performance. We witnessed stark contrasts of lifestyle, from the dark, seedy pockets of New York City to the blazing patriotism and moral discipline at West Point. Read More

Motabs to Boston: “There's a new T party in town”

Daily Tour Diary 13

By Rob and Cheri Hancock

There was another "T" party tonight in Boston only this time the "T" stands for tabernacle. Instead of angry colonists in war paint, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir swarmed Boston's Wang Theater in gowns and suits tossing off anthems and beloved favorites like so many boxes of valuable tea into a sea of admirers and new friends. Read More

Daily Tour Diary 12

By Greg and Liz Marsh

This has been a beautiful Sabbath Day of rest and recovery for the Choir and Orchestra. After four nights of performances in a row, we needed a day off to prepare for our final concert. We started off with a late breakfast and a beautiful church meeting at the hotel. Read More

Daily Tour Diary 11

By Bonita Cross

Five o'clock this morning arrived much too soon, but it was finally the long-awaited day of secrets-revealed. We knew there was a big event coming, but were kept in the dark as to where we would be. As buses pulled out of the city, a DVD was played featuring choir manager Barry Anderson announcing our secret destination. Ladies and Gentlemen, the United States Military Academy at West Point New York. What a thrill to come to this historic place. It houses over 4000 cadets preparing to lead America's Army. I can't think of a better location to celebrate the Fourth of July than such a place as this. Read More

NEW YORK CITY —  The Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the West Point Band joined musical forces to thrill an audience of more than 10,000 spectators at the 2015 Fourth of July concert, “Music Under the Stars.” Four thousand cadets, including the new freshman class at West Point, arrived in military formation for the Independence Day gala on Trophy Point overlooking the Hudson River. Read More

NEW YORK CITY —  Baseball fans at Yankee Stadium in New York City were in for a treat when the Mormon Tabernacle Choir entertained the audience with patriotic music before the beginning of Friday night’s baseball game. The choir also sang the national anthem before the start of the game between the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays. Read More

NEW YORK CITY —  Members of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir are on the road this week for a series of concerts on the East Coast. So far, the 2015 Atlantic Coast Tour has included stops in Bethesda, Maryland, and Bethel Woods and Saratoga Springs, New York. The 360-member choir and 65 musicians of the Orchestra at Temple Square are currently performing in two programs in Stern Auditorium on the Perelman Stage in the famous Carnegie Hall in New York City, including Wednesday and Thursday night shows, July 1–2. Read More

Daily Tour Diary 10

By Stan Clark

Today, the Choir and Orchestra had a free morning in New York City. I used the free time to make a pilgrimage to one of my favorite places—The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Given the upcoming Independence Day holiday happening in the U.S.A. and with my limited time, I decided to focus on seeing the paintings, sculpture, and furnishings in the museum’s American Wing. Read More

Daily Tour Diary 9

By Rick Elliott

Organists win the prize when it comes to taking busman’s holidays. Perhaps no other musician spends more of their travel time checking out and playing instruments. While choir tours keep the Tabernacle organists very busy—we are usually the first performers on the scene at each concert venue on tour, since we have to do an organ sound check before the choir and orchestra arrive at the hall—we almost always try to visit and play at least one significant pipe organ while traveling. Read More  

Years of Practice Just for the Moment

Daily Tour Diary 8

By Doug and Jill Furness

Have you heard the adage, "How do you get to Carnegie?"

The first answer is “Practice, Practice, Practice.”  For the Mormon Tabernacle Choir now in on tour in New York it also means walking ten blocks first for the sound check in the afternoon and again for the concert—in full wardrobe. Read More

Daily Tour Diary 7

The 2015 Atlantic States Tour has now concluded day seven, and what a fantastic week it has been!  Now, we have a “day of rest” from our musical missionary duties, and have been provided a needed day to “rest”, or at least enjoy a change of “scenery.” Today is a sort of halftime to think of the wonderful times we have had so far this week, as we anticipate the great opportunities that await us going forward into the next seven days! Read More

Daily Tour Diary 6

Being a child of the mountains and deserts of the West, I usually feel claustrophobic and disoriented in the flat humid lands across most of the United States. This morning, though, after leaving Manhattan and heading north to Albany and Saratoga Springs, we began winding through the rocky forests of the Adirondack Mountains, and I began feeling more at home. What a beautiful land! What blessed people! Read More

Daily Tour Diary 5

By Eric Huntsman

On June 28, the Choir and Orchestra enjoyed their first of two Sundays on the road during the 2015 Tour. As part of the careful planning that was done to help intersperse our rigorous travel and performing schedule with “rest and recovery time,” brunch did not begin until 11:30, which allowed members to sleep in or otherwise start their Sabbath in a relaxed manner. Read More

Daily Tour Diary 4

Today started with what we thought would be a lazy wake-up, and we were glad we decided to still set an alarm for 9:00. Across the street from the Marriott Marquis hotel is a Junior's restaurant where we lucked-out with two seats at the counter with a basket full of little cinnamon rolls beside us. A waiter saw us looking longingly at the basket as he doled them out, he took pity on us, and we ended up with three on our plate before delicious meals were served. Read More

Daily Tour Diary 3

Some rumblings from the timpani section:

Imagine a stack of sheet music one sheet atop another reaching from the earth to the moon!

I think that is what Bob and Gloria Campbell were envisioning when they started putting music in the orchestra folders these past two weeks. Music for two different concerts and a broadcast; let's calculate: multiply 50 orchestra folders times about 35 pieces of music - that's about 1750 pieces of music. Read More

Daily Tour Diary 2

“I Could See the Whites of Mack Wilberg’s Eyes”

Today was our first performance day of the tour—and it was a full day at that, with a two-hour sound check followed by both matinee and evening performances.

My favorite thing about tour concerts that distinguishes them from concerts in our home venues at the Tabernacle and LDS Conference Center is that we are able to be so close, both to each other and to our audience.

Daily Tour Diary 1

As a “first-timer,” I have had great expectations about tour. I heard stories of long exhausting days and little sleep, but also beautiful experiences and fond memories.  Since I joined the Choir, our intense rehearsals and performances have left little time to get to know people, or even to recognize faces and names. “Just wait till you go on tour!” I heard.  And so, I have long awaited this event for the precious experience of bonding and sharing from our hearts the joyful message of goodness and hope to so many live listeners. 

Information

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square visited five cities on the Atlantic Coast during the summer of 2015 — their first visit to most of the region in over a decade. The tour included stops in Bethesda, New York City, Saratoga Springs, Bethel Woods and Boston from 24 June through 7 July 2015 and featured the 360-voice world-renowned choir and 68 members of the Orchestra at Temple Square.

“There is nothing quite like hearing the Choir live in concert,” says Ron Jarrett, president of the Choir. “We love going on the road to connect with our audiences on the Eastern seaboard who will experience the pure joy music can bring to the hearts and minds of its listeners.”

The Choir’s repertoire covered everything from Bach and Broadway to American folk hymns and spirituals. As this tour has been concluded, tickets are no longer available.

The 2015 Atlantic Coast tour performances began on Thursday, 25 June, with a concert in Bethesda, Maryland, at the Music Center at Strathmore. The Choir has visited Maryland only one time before, over 100 years ago. The next stop on the tour, on Saturday, 27 June, was at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, on the site of the 1969 Woodstock festival in Bethel, New York. The Choir and Orchestra then headed to a performance at the Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, New York, on Monday, 29 June. Saratoga Springs was the site of a well-attended concert by the Choir and Orchestra on their 2003 tour. Then it was on to the Big Apple for two concerts in Carnegie Hall. The Choir is no stranger to New York City, having performed there six times previously, the last time a decade ago in 2003. The Atlantic Coast tour was concluded on Monday, July 6 with a final concert in the Wang Theatre in Boston, Massachusetts, where the Choir and Orchestra last visited in 2003.

Since its first tour outside of Utah in 1893, the Choir has toured extensively across the United States and abroad. It has performed throughout Europe and in music capitals from Israel and Russia to Japan and Australia. Its travels have also included performances at the inaugurations of six U.S. presidents. A full complement of the Orchestra has traveled on tour with the Choir since 2005. The all-volunteer Choir and Orchestra usually tour every other year since all of the performers must take vacation time from their jobs and leave their families to undertake the travel.

The 360-voice choir, accompanied frequently by the 150-member orchestra, can also be heard weekly as part of the Music & the Spoken Word broadcast. This 30-minute program is the world’s longest continuing network broadcast and currently airs on over 2,000 radio, TV, cable and satellite stations worldwide. The Choir and Orchestra are active recording artists with their own recording label, Mormon Tabernacle Choir®.

*Following for Bethel Woods Center for the Arts Box Office only: