Global Choir from 6 Countries Closes April 2020 General Conference
Contributed By Grace Carter, Church News staff writer
A choir of Latter-day Saints in Auckland, New Zealand, records a performance of the beloved Church hymn “We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet” in early 2020. The recording allowed Church choirs from six different continents to virtually join a prerecorded performance of The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square during the Church’s April 2020 general conference. The COVID-19 pandemic didn’t allow choirs to sing live.
Every six months, leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints deliver general conference addresses in an auditorium filled with 21,000 people. But at the recent April 4–5 conference, they spoke in a room hosting a handful of people—only those who were assigned to speak, all sitting at least six feet apart.
Though millions tuned in to their messages via television, radio, and the internet as usual, many of the conference’s typical elements were missing, including live performances by The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square.
Since restrictions due to COVID-19 prevented the 360 choir members from performing at the conference, the Church played recordings from past conferences in place of the planned musical numbers.
But there was one rendition of a hymn that no one in the remote audience had heard in previous years: the version of “We Thank Thee, O God, For a Prophet” that closed out the conference at the end of the Sunday afternoon session.
A prerecording of The Tabernacle Choir was partnered with six smaller choirs composed of Latter-day Saints in Accra, Ghana; Mexico City, Mexico; Seoul, South Korea; São Paulo, Brazil; Frankfurt, Germany; and Auckland, New Zealand.
Each small choir’s performance was recorded in early 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated restrictions on group gatherings. The Latter-day Saints around the world sang to a Tabernacle Choir recording that was later edited to match the song’s timing, according to a Newsroom release.
A Latter-day Saint choir member helps a fellow choir member put the final touches on her traditional Maori dress prior to recording the hymn “We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet.” Church members from six different countries, including New Zealand, virtually joined The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square during the April 2020 general conference.
In Frankfurt, the Saints chose a location they felt an international audience would recognize as German: Windecken-Nidderau market square in the city center, which features traditional half-timbered buildings.
“To us, a historical location matched the focus of our conference,” Church project manager Judith Genster told Newsroom.
The singers in Auckland chose a beach in Wenderholm Regional Park for their performance. Natalie Martinez Pedersen, a member of the New Zealand choir who is originally from Salt Lake City, Utah, told Newsroom, “Prior to anyone knowing what the effects of COVID-19 would be on the world or our general conference, [the hymn] served as a tender mercy and helped lift and heal us just when we needed it.”
In Accra, the choir performed in front of Black Star Gate, a monument to Ghana’s struggle for independence, and the Seoul choir chose the 600-year-old Changdeokgung Palace as its backdrop.
In Mexico City, singers gathered at the Church’s Mexico Missionary Training Center.
All choirs sang in their own languages—English, Portuguese, Spanish, Korean, and German—and millions of worldwide viewers were invited to join in a final reprise of the first verse, adding the 33 languages included in the conference’s livestream to the international chorus.
At a moment marked by isolation and uncertainty, this multicultural effort symbolized the unifying force of faith in Jesus Christ and His restored Church.
“What a once-in-a-lifetime way to participate in a historic general conference!” said Alisa Gubler, a Church-service missionary who sang in the Auckland choir.
“It was exciting to see the finished product and amazing to be part of this memorable experience,” Gubler added. “I have seen many comments [on social media] . . . about how people were moved to tears.”
A Latter-day Saint choir sings at one of Wenderholm Regional Park’s beaches in Auckland, New Zealand, as part of a unique virtual performance broadcast during the April 2020 general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the group was recorded singing along to a prerecorded Tabernacle Choir performance that was later edited to match the hymn’s timing.
Latter-day Saints in Auckland, New Zealand, record “We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet” for the April 2020 general conference in early 2020. Thanks to prerecordings like this, six choirs from different countries virtually joined The Tabernacle Choir’s previously recorded performance on Temple Square during the April 2020 general conference. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, choirs could not sing live.
Latter-day Saints in Frankfurt, Germany, sing to a prerecorded Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square audio track in early 2020. The choir was recorded in a picturesque backdrop of the historic Windecken-Nidderau market square in the city’s center for the April 2020 general conference’s closing musical number. The choir’s performances were recorded and later edited into a video compilation that was broadcast to millions of people worldwide.
A Church production team records a group of German Latter-day Saints in Frankfurt, Germany, in early 2020. The video project was recorded prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and was used in a compilation of prerecorded videos with The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square for the April 2020 general conference.
A Latter-day Saint choir from Accra, Ghana, records the hymn “We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet” in early 2020. Prerecorded choir performances from six different countries—Brazil, Germany, Ghana, Mexico, New Zealand, and South Korea—were edited into a prerecorded performance of The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square and broadcast during the April 2020 general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
