SALT LAKE CITY — The song the Mormon Tabernacle Choir will perform during
Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration on Friday is “America, the Beautiful,” the Deseret News has learned.
Details have been controlled tightly since the Dec. 22 announcement that the choir would sing at the swearing-in ceremony for America’s 45th president. But the 215 voices from what Ronald Reagan dubbed “America’s Choir” will sing with accompaniment from the Marine Band known as “The President’s Own,” according to an inauguration program posted on the band’s website.
Friday will mark the third time the Tabernacle Choir has performed during the swearing-in ceremony. The choir sang “This is My Country” during the 1965 inauguration of Lyndon Johnson. It sang that same song and “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the 1969 inauguration of Richard Nixon.
The Tabernacle Choir sang prelude music at the swearing-in ceremony for George H. W. Bush in 1989, and it has performed at inaugural parades for Ronald Reagan in 1981, George H. W. Bush in 1989 and George W. Bush in 2001, when it sang “America, the Beautiful. ”
Friday’s performance will be from an arrangement by Mack Wilberg, the choir’s director.
The Marine Band also will play “Hail to the Chief” for President Barack Obama as he arrives at the inauguration ceremony, and then play it again for President Trump after he takes the oath of office.
The band also will play “Hail Columbia,” “The Stars and Stripes Forever” and accompany Jackie Evancho as she sings the national anthem.
