“Tabernacle Choir to Visit USSR during 1991 Tour,” Ensign, Aug. 1990, 74
Tabernacle Choir to Visit USSR during 1991 Tour
Moscow and Leningrad, in the Soviet Union, will be among eleven central and eastern European cities on the Tabernacle Choir’s itinerary as the world-renowned singing group performs during a concert tour next June.
Plans for the 1991 tour were announced to choir members by President Gordon B. Hinckley, First Counselor in the First Presidency, on June 3 before the group’s weekly “Music and the Spoken Word” broadcast.
The thirteen-concert tour will open in Frankfurt, in the Federal Republic of Germany, on June 10 and will conclude in Leningrad, in the Soviet Union, June 27.
Negotiations for the Tabernacle Choir to perform in the Soviet Union were conducted on behalf of the Soviet government by Yuri V. Dubinin, who until recently was his country’s ambassador to the United States.
The group will leave Salt Lake City on June 8 and will return on June 29. The schedule will include performances in:
—Frankfurt, June 10. As part of its concert, the choir plans to tape a weekly “Music and the Spoken Word” broadcast to be heard and viewed in Europe as well as in the United States.
—Stuttgart, Federal Republic of Germany, June 11 (tentative).
—Zurich, Switzerland, June 13.
—Budapest, Hungary, June 15. This concert will be broadcast throughout Hungary on national television and will be preceded by a taping of a “Music and the Spoken Word” program. Then, on June 16, the choir will present a special fireside in Budapest for members of the Church and their friends.
—Vienna, Austria, June 17.
—Prague, Czechoslovakia, June 18.
—Dresden, German Democratic Republic, June 19.
—Berlin, east and west sectors, June 20, 21.
—Warsaw, Poland, June 22.
—Moscow, USSR, June 24, 25.
—Leningrad, USSR, June 27.
Jerold Ottley, musical director for the Tabernacle Choir, will be on the podium for the tour, assisted by Donald Ripplinger, associate director. Robert Cundick and John Longhurst, choir organists, will provide musical accompaniment. Spencer Kinard, who delivers the “Spoken Word” portion of the choir’s weekly broadcasts, will also accompany the group on its tour.
The 1991 tour will be the Tabernacle Choir’s first opportunity to sing for audiences in the Soviet Union, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Austria. On its Grand European Tour of 1955, the choir performed in Berlin and Zurich, as well as in other major cities of Europe and the United Kingdom. The choir also toured Europe in 1973 and 1982.
Other international concert tours have taken the choir to Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Japan, and Korea.
The Tabernacle Choir’s weekly “Music and the Spoken Word” program, on the air for more than six decades now, is the longest continuous network radio program in history.