Young Ambassadors

Performing group from Brigham Young University
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The Young Ambassadors are a song and dance performing group from Brigham Young University (BYU). Consisting of 20 performers, 10 male and 10 female, they were founded by Janie Thompson in 1969. Since their first international performance at the 1970 World Fair in Osaka, Japan, they have performed in over 68 countries.

Ernest L. Wilkinson, then president of BYU, asked Janie Thompson, who had just returned from a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints (LDS Church), to found the Program Bureau in 1952. She accepted Wilkinson's request, though she had to reject an offer from the Ike Carpenter band. BYU was invited to send a group to represent the United States at the 1970 World Fair in Osaka, Japan. Assisted by Harry Schultz, Thompson had created a performing group in 1969 called the Brigham Young Ambassadors. "Brigham" was dropped from the name in 1970 and the group became known as Young Ambassadors. Their audiences have included the prime minister of India, the queen of Thailand, and the king and queen of Jordan. Live and televised appearances in major concert halls and impromptu performances in hospitals, orphanages, town squares and government palaces reach millions of people each year. The Young Ambassadors company consists of 20 performers (10 men and 10 women), a 10 piece show band (keyboard, drums, guitar and bass guitar, etc.) and technical personnel.

The Young Ambassadors were the first organized group to represent the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints (LDS Church) or BYU in the Soviet Union. In a 1991 speech at BYU, Dallin H. Oaks discussed how the Young Ambassadors overcame the challenges of trying to perform in China in 1978. The challenges were due to the lack of diplomatic relations between China and the United States at the time and the fact that United States tourists were not welcome there. Oaks related the 1978 tour and subsequent tours of the Young Ambassadors to China as contributive to missionary work of LDS Church in China and around the world. Chinese nobility were impressed by the Young Ambassadors, and continued to let them perform in China, even when visits from other performing groups were cancelled. Along with Oaks, French scholar Pierre Vendassi agreed that the performances of the Young Ambassadors in Beijing and other Chinese cities helped establish a relationship between China and the LDS Church.