Janice received her formal musical training at Brigham Young University where she played percussion instruments in the Concert Band and Orchestra.
In 1978 Janice released her first album of original songs, Where Is Heaven.
Since that first album she has compiled an impressive list of productions: More
than 1,200 songs, 75 recorded albums and songbooks, 2 full-length musicals, 8
sacred cantatas, and several albums in Spanish, Japanese, Portuguese and Korean. She composed the hymn As Sisters in Zion in the LDS hymnbook and has ten songs in the Primary Childrens Songbook. She has cowritten six albums of songs with Senator Orrin G. Hatch, one of which was performed at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. in 2001, and at the Presidential Inauguration in Washington, D.C. in 2005. She has published a book, Songs From My Heart: The Stories Behind the Songs, as well as four volumes of Inspirational New Hymns For Choir and Home containing over 120 hymns.
Janice’s works have been performed by The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, The Mormon Youth Symphony and Chorus, country duo Brooks & Dunn, Gladys Knight, The Osmonds–Second Generation, at Robert Schuller’s Hour of Power from the Crystal Cathedral, on the Oprah Winfrey Show after 9-11, as well as by countless other choirs and soloists throughout the world. What began as a simple home hobby has literally spread throughout the world and has involved the entire family. Author Joy Saunders Lundberg says “Janice has been hailed by some as the most prolific composer in the history of the church—she is the musical phenomenon of our time.”
In 1994 Janice received the Exemplary Woman award from Ricks College. In 1997 she received the BYU Alumni Distinguished Service Award. In 1998 she and Senator Hatch were awarded the National George Washington Medal of Honor from the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge for their album Freedom’s Light. In 1999 the LDS Booksellers Association honored her with their Exceptional Merit Award. In 1999 the Utah/California Women pre- sented her with their Heritage Award, and she received the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001 from the Faith Centered Music Association (FCMA).
Janice sang in The Mormon Tabernacle Choir from 1993 to 1999. She and her husband served a full-time mission to Santiago Chile from 2002-03 and a three-year church service mission in a Spanish ward in Provo. They regular- ly speak at firesides throughout the United States and continue writing, publishing and recording new music. In 2009 BYU-TV produced a sixty-minute documentary entitled Janice Kapp Perry: A Life of Service and Song. In a poll published in LDS Living magazine (January 2013) entitled “100 Greatest LDS Songs of All Time,” Janice’s song “A Child’s Prayer” was number #1. Seven of her other songs were in the top 27.
