Michael O. Leavitt, president of the Tabernacle Choir in Temple Square, addressed a virtual audience of members of the Choir organization on Thursday night announcing four new high profile goals that will set a bold and historic direction for the renowned Choir and Orchestra. .
Leavitt and his advisers, L. Whitney Clayton and Gary B. Porter, have been in place for six months. During this time, they followed the counsel given when called by Church President Russell M. Nelson that they should prayerfully seek innovative and transformative ways for the choir to respond to the mission. of the Church in the future.
Leavitt said when they returned to the First Presidency recently to seek approval of their major goals and plans: “President Nelson and his counselors have expressed enthusiastic approval of what we will discuss with you this evening.
The first of the organization’s four new key goals is to expand the Choir’s digital audience. Currently, the Choir organization reports its activity on social networks to hundreds of thousands of subscribers. The Choir now aspires to measure that reach into the tens of millions by reaching out to new, more diverse audiences around the world and moving from CDs and DVDs to social media streaming and evolving with technology. A group of experts is being assembled inside and outside of Church headquarters to determine how this can be accomplished.
The second key objective is to magnify the missionary role of the Choir. “It is often easier to start a conversation about the gospel by gifting sacred music to a friend or stranger than to ask direct questions about their faith,” President Clayton said. We also believe there are ways for the choir and orchestra to give a boost to Church missions as they perform around the world.
The third key purpose of the Choir is to reflect the global mission of the Church. President Leavitt said, “An important part of that goal is for the choir to reflect the nature of the global members of the Church. This has been a conversation for many years and serious efforts have been made to incorporate members whose heritage reflects the global church. The First Presidency has authorized the Choir Presidency to explore new alternatives that will help us achieve this goal. »
The last key objective of the Choir is to increase its global visibility. The mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the earth, and in support of this mission the Tabernacle Choir periodically conducts tours. President Leavitt said, “Our goal is to become even more visible to the world. We plan to be seen in more countries where the physical presence of the choir will make a difference in uplifting missionary work, inspiring devotion in members, and building important friendships for the Church.
President Leavitt also announced that the 2022 Nordic and UK Heritage Tour by choir and orchestra, originally scheduled for 2020 and postponed to 2021, has been cancelled. Leavitt said, “Omicron’s recent push did not allow for the months-long preparation necessary for the choir to be able to accomplish the diplomatic and missionary goals of the tour. Even though by the summer the conditions may have changed to make the trip possible, the circumstances simply do not allow us to prepare adequately. Further details on tour cancellation, including information on ticket refunds, will be posted as they become available on tabchoir.org/tour.
In addition to the choir’s new goals, President Porter announced that the choir will make major investments in information technology, innovations to increase wardrobe production capacity, and ways to increase and raise the use of the choir school.
At the end of Thursday evening’s meeting, President Leavitt emphasized to the members of the Choir organization that they had only received a framework for the future and that there would be more details and details at the over the next three months. He encouraged members to view these changes as gradual, occurring over several years, but with astonishing results.
