Janice Kapp Perry

Janice Kapp Perry (born 1938) is a well-known Latter-day Saint songwriter whose contributions have resulted in roughly 50 albums and songs in the LDS Church hymnal, Children's Songbook, and 70 Favorite Children's Songs.

Biography

Perry was born in Ogden, Utah and lives in Provo with her husband Douglas. She has five children and over a dozen grandchildren.

Perry received a degree from Brigham Young University in 1960 and she raised her children.

In the late 1970s she got her "two lucky breaks" as she calls them when she broke her ankle playing basketball, and simultaneously the family TV broke. While recuperating from her injuries, and with nothing to do, her bishop asked her to write original music for the ward roadshow, which initiated her future musical success.^[1]

Perry served as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in Chile with her husband from 2002 to 2004. She later served with her husband as a missionary in Provo assigned to a Spanish-speaking ward.^[2]

In 2007, Perry wrote children's songs about each one of the 15 presidents of the LDS Church.^[3] In early 2008, Perry set Church President Gordon B. Hinckley's poem "What is this Thing Called Death" to music after one of her nieces died. This was done just in time for it to be sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir at Hinckley's funeral.^[4]

Perry composed the hymn "As Sisters in Zion" for the LDS Hymnbook and has ten songs published in the Primary songbook. She has produced more than 50 albums of original music, numerous sacred cantatas, several full-length musicals, and her music is known world-wide throughout the Church. Her music has been performed by artists such as Gladys Knight, Brooks & Dunn, and The Osmonds-Second Generation and she has co-written with Senator Orrin Hatch.^[5]

She retired from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in 2000 after 5½ years. She received the Ricks College Exemplary Woman Award in 1994, and the BYU Alumni Distinguished Service Award in 1997. She is the older sister to noted painter Gary Kapp. She and Douglas enjoy traveling around the nation presenting firesides.

Perry co-wrote six albums of songs with Orrin Hatch.^[2]

References