Tabernacle Choir Performances Taped for TV

The Tabernacle Choir will perform throughout the United States during the coming months as a result of four half-hour videotapes of its weekly “Music and the Spoken Word” broadcast March 18–19 at the Epcot Center near Walt Disney World in Florida.

The Disney network taped the choir’s performances to use in four national television broadcasts. The choir has already been featured on a Disney special—the Walt Disney World Easter Parade, broadcast March 26 on the ABC television network. Two upcoming national broadcasts will feature choir medleys of folk and patriotic songs, one of which will be used during the Children’s Miracle Network Telethon in June, the other in a Fourth of July program. The fourth broadcast—a choir rendition of the “Hallelujah Chorus”—will be part of the Disney Christmas Parade program.

During one of the four short concerts taped on March 18, the choir also sang a group of popular songs from Disney films. Disney characters such as Donald Duck, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Pinocchio, Winnie the Pooh, and Snow White joined in the fun when the choir sang “When You Wish Upon a Star.”

In brief remarks during the concerts, commentator J. Spencer Kinard commended the Disney organization for producing “material designed to educate and entertain families. In a time when its strength and sanctity are being undermined, there is still no effective substitute for the family.”

In addition to the Epcot Center performances, on Sunday evening the choir divided into groups of approximately sixty members each to provide music and talks at firesides in five mid-Florida stakes: Orlando, Lake Mary, Cocoa, Lakeland, and Tampa.

Choir firesides, first tried in New Zealand and Australia, make it possible for members, missionaries, and people investigating the Church to see and hear the Tabernacle Choir, even though they may not attend a concert.

In a missionary effort, members of the Lakeland Florida Stake were asked to take a nonmember to the fireside; approximately three hundred nonmembers attended as a result. A total of four to five thousand people attended the firesides.

The choir also performed for the American Society of Neuroradiologists at its convention in Orlando on March 21.

During its Epcot Center performance, the choir was joined by some unusual guests—characters from Walt Disney films. (Photo by George Papas.)