Tabernacle Choir to Sing in Israel

Plans for the Tabernacle Choir’s first tour to the Holy Land have been announced by President Gordon B. Hinckley, First Counselor in the First Presidency.

President Hinckley announced approval for the tour, scheduled for 6 December 1992 to 6 January 1993.

The tour will include concerts in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Haifa. Precise concert dates and details of the tour will be announced later.

President Hinckley said Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek extended the invitation during a visit to Jerusalem by President Howard W. Hunter and Elder James E. Faust of the Quorum of the Twelve. They were accompanied by Truman G. Madsen, director of the Brigham Young University Center for Near Eastern Studies in Jerusalem.

While in Jerusalem, the choir and director Jerold D. Ottley will appear with the Jerusalem Symphony, conducted by David Shallon. The choir will appear as part of the orchestra’s traditional liturgical series, which is performed December 2 through January 5. It is the only time during the year when the orchestra features Jewish and Christian music.

“This is the first time in 145 years of the choir’s history that it has gone to the Holy Land,” said choir president Wendell M. Smoot, Jr. “It is a great tribute to the choir to be invited by the mayor of Jerusalem. Each year, some well-known organization is invited to perform with the Jerusalem Symphony’s liturgical series.”

President Smoot said plans for the tour include a CBS network broadcast from the Holy Land of the choir’s weekly Sunday program, “Music and the Spoken Word.”

Concerts in Israel will round out a busy year for the choir, already scheduled for a two-week tour of the United States and Canada in July.

The U.S./Canada tour is to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas.