The Mormon Tabernacle Choir

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir made their public debut on August 22, 1847, just 29 days after Brigham Young and his 147 followers first settled in the Salt Lake Valley. John Parry was named the choir's first official conductor in 1849, and two years later, construction was completed on the first Tabernacle church, followed in 1867 by the dome-roofed Tabernacle facility which still exists. The 150-member choir assembled for the facility's October 6th opening was at that time the largest in the U.S., their voices accompanied by a mammoth organ featuring some 2000 pipes. The Mormon ...