Meet the Tabernacle Choir, Orchestra members with Mexico ties

MEXICO CITY, Mexico — When leaders of The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square announced the choir and Orchestra at Temple Square would be going to Mexico City, Juan-Carlos Mackay said he gasped out loud.

“My family won’t have to see me on TV. They’ll be able to see me in person,” said Mackay, whose mother is from Mexico. 

Albert Treviño Flores thought, “I’ve already been there.” But then the Mexico City native began getting excited about it.

“Then I realized just how great that was going to be … even though I had already been there, to be able to go back to my roots,” he said. He joined the choir the same year as siblings Damaris and Hirepan Zarco, who are also from Mexico City. 

Several members of The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square and the Orchestra at Temple Square are from Mexico or have strong connections to the country. Also, two of the 10 global participants in the April 2023 general conference were from Mexico and will be participating.

The Tabernacle Choir and orchestra have been on tour in Mexico since Tuesday, June 13, and performed in the Toluca Cathedral on Thursday, June 15. They will perform in the National Auditorium in Mexico City at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 17, and Sunday, June 18. The concert on Saturday evening will be streamed live on the choir’s YouTube channel.

Damaris and Hirepan Zarco: Siblings in the choir

Mexico City — the largest city in North America — has a deep history and culture. 

“Growing up in Mexico City was the best,” said Hirepan Zarco. “There’s a lot of life in Mexico City. There’s always something going on.”

Hirepan Zarco and Damaris Zarco are the youngest of eight children in their family, all of whom were enrolled in the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico City. They would attend regular school during the day; then their mom would drive them an hour each way to and from the music school. Hirepan Zarco studied the piano, and Damaris Zarco played the violin. Choir classes were also part of the curriculum, Damaris Zarco said. 

“And I don’t think any of us would have imagined that all of that studying and learning and sacrifice would be to sing [in] a choir,” she said.

The conservatory, where they spent hours studying, is less than 3 kilometers (about 1.8 miles) from the National Auditorium, where the Tabernacle Choir will perform June 17-18.

“It all kind of comes full circle,” he said. “… We get to use the talents that we acquired at the conservatory thanks to the support of my mom. It’s a beautiful thing.”

After both graduated from high school, they went to Brigham Young University. Hirepan Zarco served a “foreign” mission to Boise, Idaho. Damaris Zarco served in the Mexico City North Mission. 

By the time Hirepan Zarco graduated from BYU, he was married with three children and stayed in Utah. 

Hirepan Zarco, who is now the father of seven children and is a content creator for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said he’s “passionate about assuring that whatever gospel message we communicate, it is adapted to the culture that we’re trying to communicate it to.”

Damaris Zarco, who is a nurse, said her sister’s father-in-law encouraged her and Hirepan Zarco to apply to the choir after hearing her sing at a nephew’s baptism.

“It always had just been a faraway dream. I never thought to actually do it,” she said. 

Hirepan Zarco mentioned in a family Zoom meeting that he was planning to audition, and Damaris Zarco shared that she was, too. They submitted their auditions in summer 2021 and became choir members in 2022. 

Both have been helping choir members learn Spanish pronunciations for the songs they are singing. Damaris Zarco, who sings second alto, even helped record the lyrics for other choir members.

Hirepan Zarco, who sings bass, said, “The choir is so loving and so passionate about what they’re doing, about what we’re doing, that it’s just been a joy … to make the music work for those that we’re about to go sing for.”

Added Damaris Zarco: “This is not just a performance. It really has a purpose of connecting with that particular people whom I love and I belong to. I’m just so happy to see the care that has gone into the tour.”

Albert Treviño Flores: Piano to singing

Albert Treviño Flores was 10 years old when he heard the Tabernacle Choir sing live for the first time. He and his family had just move from Mexico City to Provo, Utah, as his father was attending to Brigham Young University. 

“I thought, ‘Wow, that is a pretty good choir,’” he said. 

Treviño had grown up surrounded by music. His grandfather Hector Treviño liked opera. After being baptized in 1941 in Monterrey, Mexico, Hector Treviño heard about the Tabernacle Choir and got a couple of their records, which he would play. 

“My dad would love to sing and would often join church choirs as much as he could,” Albert Treviño said.

Treviño’s father served a mission in northern Mexico, then was offered a job as an accountant at the soon-to-open Benemérito de las Americas school in Mexico City. He negotiated his start date back a couple of months to get married. 

After their wedding and trip to the Mesa Arizona Temple, Treviño’s parents packed up and moved from Monterrey to Mexico City. His mother worked as a house mother for the student housing and helped host Tabernacle Choir members who came in 1968.

In elementary school, young Alberto liked singing in the school choir. His father started paying for piano lessons for his children when the ward pianist moved. They later lived in Provo for three years, until Alberto Treviño was 14 years old. And when they moved back to Mexico City, he continued playing piano and singing.

His patriarchal blessing mentions his musical gifts and says to continue pursuing them. 

As Treviño’s older brothers served missions and decided to attend BYU, they became involved in Men’s Chorus and also the Mormon Youth Chorus. With nudging from one of his brothers, Treviño auditioned for the Mormon Youth Chorus, which he sang with before and after serving a mission to Chile. He also sang at BYU under Mack Wilberg, who was then the director of the Men’s Chorus. 

He sang with the Tabernacle Choir during the priesthood session of general conference and in the Conference Center in 2000 at the first general conference there. “It was wonderful to sing in the Conference Center then,” he said. 

As he married and graduated from school with a degree in information systems, he continued to sing in ward and stake choirs. He and his wife would eventually adopt four children with special needs. He also got involved with a local musical group. “I still had in the back of my mind, ‘I wonder if I could make it to the Tabernacle Choir?’”

A few years ago, he felt prompted to audition for the choir earlier than planned. With the support of his wife and with his patriarchal blessing in mind, he submitted his application in 2020. His audition was delayed a year, but he joined the Tabernacle Choir in 2022.

Treviño helped the choir with Spanish pronunciations and said members “have really done a remarkable job.”

He’s seen how the gospel has given his family hope. “There was a way to move forward and to have peace, even with everything that’s going on around you,” he said. 

Going to Mexico is “very exciting, but it’s also very humbling,” Treviño added. 

Juan-Carlos Mackay: Blending two cultures

Juan-Carlos Mackay’s mother is from Mexico, his father is from Utah, and he grew up in the U.S. That blend of cultures led to a variety of music in their home, from the Beatles to the classical “Peter and Wolf” to iconic Spanish singers. Music came naturally to young Juan-Carlos and his father taught him to sing harmony. 

“He would always encourage us: ‘It’s cool to sing the melody but harmony makes everything come alive, that makes it sound better,’” Mackay said. 

He participated in choirs through high school and took some piano lessons, then decided to study music in college. After beginning in music education, he switched to music composition. 

Years later, a cousin invited him to be a caroler at This Is the Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City one Christmas, which helped him remember that “singing is pretty fun.” A fellow caroler and friend joined the Tabernacle Choir, and another choir member began attending Mackay’s ward. Both encouraged him to audition for the choir. 

His first audition was in 2016, and while he didn’t make it then, he received feedback on how to improve. As he implemented that feedback, he also sought advice from choir members he knew. He applied again the following year and joined the choir in 2018 as a tenor.

Several of his extended family members in Mexico City are planning to attend the National Auditorium concert. His wife, Amara, plays violin in the Orchestra at Temple Square. 

Through these concerts, Mackay hopes those in Mexico will feel they are loved and valued. 

“I hope that the people of Mexico feel closer to their Heavenly Father,” he said. 

Daron Bradford: Playing in the Mexico City Philharmonic

When Daron Bradford saw the notice about a principal clarinet audition for the Mexico City Philharmonic, he initially passed over it. But the then-BYU student realized he knew someone with the right connections and called him. In two days, Bradford was in Mexico City for the audition. 

And he got the job. Bradford, who served a mission in Ecuador, was the principal clarinet in the Mexico City Philharmonic from 1980 to 1982.

“I came in the middle of the season,” he said. “And so … they’re looking at me and saying: ‘Here is the gringo, [a] very white guy, coming in the orchestra speaking this fluent Spanish. How did this happen?’ And so I got a chance to tell a lot of people about this mission that I did for my Church.”

He taught in the music conservatory, including setting up curriculum for saxophone. Many years later, he found out that the family of one of his saxophone students had joined the Church. 

“We really didn’t talk about the Church, but he knew I was a member. It was so cool,” he said, adding that he’s been trying to contact him. 

Bradford, who is the clarinet section leader in the Orchestra at Temple Square, graduated from BYU with degrees in clarinet performance and music education. After returning from Mexico, he went back to school for a master’s degree in information systems. He worked at WordPerfect for about 10 years as a programmer software engineer, “all the time trying to play as much as I could.”

His wife, Janet Bradford, was a member of the choir for nine years and retired when she was 60. Daron Bradford has been in the orchestra since it started in 1999 and plays multiple instruments. At the concerts in Mexico City, he will play the clarinet, Irish flute, a traditional Andean flute called a quena or a notch flute, and an instrument that’s a combination of a clarinet and an oboe. 

He’s looking forward to meeting a lot of people, and possibly seeing the places where he worked and lived. 

Denisse Elorza Avalos and Georgina Montemayor Wong: International choir participants from Mexico

Sisters-in-law Denisse Elorza Avalos, of Tijuana, Mexico, and Georgina Montemayor Wong, of Monterrey, Mexico, were two of the 10 international singers who sang with the Tabernacle Choir during the April 2023 general conference. They’ve been invited to sing with the choir during the June 17-18 concerts. Both are excited for the opportunity to sing with the choir again. 

Montemayor Wong said she was humbled, joyful and grateful to sing with the choir at general conference. 

“As I stood there singing, I could feel the spirit so strong that my soul was filled with an indescribable joy,” she said. 

She’s excited and grateful to be singing with the choir again. 

“It was singing in my country, my land and with music in my native language. I couldn’t believe it!” she said of the invitation. “I feel so grateful to be able to experience this historic tour in Mexico, I know that God loves all His children and that this world tour will bless many people.” 

Elorza Avalos said she’s seen many blessings from singing with the choir, including missionary experiences. 

“There is a euphoria of hope and faith thanks to this experience of participation with the choir, which leaves [us] the testimony that when one makes an effort to develop their gifts and put them [in] the service of the Lord and His work, the Lord’s blessings always come because He is there in every detail of our life.”