The Salt Lake Tabernacle at night: the great organ’s gold pipes lit above rows of red choir seats and empty wooden pews.

Weak Things · Tabernacle Choir data · 1847 to 2026

America’s Choir, counted.

Pioneers sang their first hymns in the Salt Lake Valley in August 1847. Since 1929 the choir has gone on the air every week without a break. Here it is by the numbers: the broadcasts, the directors, the pipes, the tours and the singers who now come from around the world.

Count the broadcasts →See the tours

5,000Music & the Spoken Word episodes by July 13, 2025

1929the first broadcast, July 15

360volunteer singers, ages 25 to 55

16music directors since 1849

11,623pipes in the Tabernacle organ

13countries represented by global singers, October 2026

Figures are from the Choir, the Church Newsroom, Church News and published histories. Sources are listed in How we counted.

Chapter 1 · 360 voices

Who sings

Every singer is a volunteer. They audition, rehearse every week, sing every Sunday and serve for a limited number of years, alongside an orchestra and bells that are volunteers too.

Chapter 2 · Since July 15, 1929

The longest-running broadcast

Music & the Spoken Word has gone out every week since 1929, through the Depression, a world war and a pandemic. The 5,000th episode aired on July 13, 2025. This counter keeps going from there.

Every thousand episodes

19years from the first broadcast to the 1,000th, in 1948.

19years from the 4,000th, in 2006, to the 5,000th, in 2025. One a week, every week.

25countries in Africa that began receiving a weekly broadcast on April 19, 2026, an audience of about 8 million.

Chapter 3 · 16 directors

Every music director

From John Parry, a Welsh convert who led the first choir in 1849, to Mack Wilberg, who has directed since 2008. Evan Stephens and Jerold Ottley each led for about a quarter-century.

27years for Evan Stephens, 1889 to 1916, the longest tenure.

25years for Jerold Ottley, 1974 to 1999.

2directors who served less than a year: Thomas Griggs in 1880 and Jay E. Welch in 1974.

Chapter 4 · 21,000 seats

The hardest ticket at Christmas

Every December the choir, orchestra and bells fill the 21,000-seat Conference Center for a Christmas concert, usually three nights in a row. It is filmed and broadcast on PBS and BYUtv the following December.

63,000people across three nights in a normal year.

~1 millionticket requests in a typical year.

500performers in the cast, with the choir, orchestra, bells and trumpets.

1 yearfrom filming to broadcast, so each special airs the next Christmas.

Chapter 5 · 28 countries

Where the choir has sung

The choir has toured to 28 countries and sung at 13 World’s Fairs. Its 1955 tour took it across Europe; in 1991 it sang in Moscow and Leningrad. The Songs of Hope tour, begun in 2023, has taken it to Latin America and Asia. Tap a city.

Europe up close: the 1955, 1991 and 2016 tours

50,068people at a single stadium concert in Lima, Peru, in 2025.

1893the year the choir took second prize at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

6presidential inaugurations, from Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965 to Donald Trump in 2017.

Chapter 6 · 11,623 pipes

The organs

The Tabernacle organ began with 1,662 pipes in 1867 and has been rebuilt and enlarged since. The Conference Center organ across the street was built for the building that opened in 2000.

206ranks of pipes in the Tabernacle organ.

130ranks in the Conference Center organ, with 7,708 pipes.

~25%of the Tabernacle organ’s pipes removed for renovation in 2025.

Chapter 7 · 13 countries

Singers from around the world

Since April 2023, singers from outside Utah have joined the choir for General Conference through its global participant program. In October 2026, 13 global members came from 13 countries.

Home countries of the October 2026 global members

Chapter 8 · 1910 to 2018

Records, awards and firsts

A first recording in 1910, a Grammy in 1960, the National Medal of Arts in 2003, and a new name in 2018. These are the milestones.

How we counted

Sources and notes

Christmas. Seats and audiences from Deseret News, 2019, Church News, 2021, Church News, 2023 and Deseret News, 2024; ticket requests from Deseret News, 2021; the 500-person cast from PBS.
Broadcast. Milestone dates are from Church News, July 2025. The live counter adds one episode a week from the 5,000th and is an estimate; special broadcasts are not counted.
Directors. From Church News’ 5,000th-episode history. Tenures are shown by year.
Tours and honors. From the choir’s Wikipedia article and its world tour page, with Deseret News, April 2026. Only cities named in those sources are mapped; the choir has sung in many more.
Organs. From the choir’s organs page, The Daily Universe, 1999 and the Church Newsroom on the 2025 renovation.
Global singers and Africa. From Church News, October 2026, the global participant program and the Church Newsroom.
Choir size. 360 singers ages 25 to 55 who live within 100 miles of Temple Square, as described by the Church Newsroom.
What the numbers can't say. A count shows size, pace and reach. It cannot measure faith, service or a changed heart. For those, read, serve and see.

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