The first time Leo Marcelo heard The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square sing was when he was listening to general conference as a new member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
He thought: “Who are these people?” But it was “a world away,” said Marcelo, who is a Filipino native. He was in Asia and, at the time, had no plans to go to the U.S.
“It was a lofty dream — a dream that wasn’t going to be a reality,” Marcelo said of that time.
Marcelo, 46, who sings first tenor, is now a first-year member of The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square. He’s one of the choir members on this stop of the choir and orchestra “Hope” tour that have ties to the Philippines. The tour goes through Feb. 29 and includes a sacred music concert on Sunday, Feb. 25, at the Quadricentennial Pavilion of The Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas and two concerts in the SM Mall of Asia Arena on Tuesday, Feb. 27, and Wednesday, Feb. 28.
The concert on Feb. 28 will be livestreamed on the choir’s YouTube channel, and local Church leaders are encouraging people to gather to watch it.
This is the first time the choir has visited the Philippines — a country of more than 7,100 islands.
Born in Quezon City, his family has also lived in Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong and in China as they moved with his father’s engineering profession.
Growing up, Leo Marcelo and his siblings would be asked to sing for family and at various events.
“My mother is a very good singer,” he said, adding there was music in his home.
Marcelo, the youngest of the four children in his family, was 19 and living in Hong Kong. He forgot his work identification card, and he took a bus home in the middle of day that he usually didn’t ride. Marcelo said there were some Chinese people on the bus and two missionaries who were lost.
“They were asking directions,” Marcelo said. They were going near Marcelo’s home, and they talked. Previously, Marcelo hadn’t heard of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint at all. He met with the missionaries for seven months before he was baptized, saying he was “hard-headed.”
He baptized his parents just before he served a mission — in the Philippines Naga Mission.
As a missionary, he found that while people weren’t always willing to listen to a gospel message, they would be willing to hear a song. His song of choice was “I Am a Child of God.”
After serving a mission, he changed career paths and decided to save up and to go to Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. He eventually went to BYU–Idaho in Rexburg, Idaho, where he majored in supply chain management and finance.
He’s worked in the industry in multiple states, including Colorado, Oregon and Pennsylvania. Everywhere he went, he would sing in community choirs.
When he moved to Utah, it was on his bucket list to audition for the choir. “I’m not saying that I’ll get in,” he told himself.
He didn’t have formal musical training and had to study music theory.
There are so many dreams that are coming true with this tour, Marcelo said.
“In the Philippines, you see the choir from a distance,” he said. People see them on TV or online. Now, they get to see them in-person.
His two sisters and their families live in the Philippines and are planning to be at the concert
During rehearsals, Marcelo was taking selfie photos with fellow choir members.
After the first concert on Friday, Feb. 23, he said it was “amazing. It’s more than I imagined. The Filipinos are the best, as usual.”
Missionary service
More than a dozen choir members have connections to the Philippines, including those who have served missions there.
With 853,254 Church members across 1,272 congregations and 23 missions, the Philippines has the most members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Asia. Outside of the U.S., there are only more members in Mexico (1.5 million) and Brazil (1.4 million).
Matt Kuehnl, who sings baritone, served in the Baguio area, north of Manila, from 1999-2001. Now, his mission has split multiple times, and the Urdaneta Philippines Temple, scheduled to be dedicated in April, is in one of the stakes he served in.
When he heard the choir and orchestra would be going on tour to the Philippines, he was excited. Now, he’s back in the Philippines for the first time since he was a young missionary — this time as a musical missionary. And he still can speak Tagalog, which has helped with some of the songs the choir will be singing.
“The people of the Philippines are just so awesome and so faithful,” Kuehl said. While many from the areas he served in aren’t able to make it to the in-person concerts in the Mall of Asia Arena, they are excited to watch the livestream.
Steve Voorhees, who plays French horn in the orchestra, served as a missionary in Cebu City, on one of the central islands, from 2001-2003. One of the two houses of the Lord in the Philippines is the Cebu City Philippines Temple, which was dedicated in 2010.
Voohees was “more than excited” when he heard of the tour plans. The members he’s been in contact with are also excited for the performances.
“I wish I had time to fly to Cebu City,” he said.
The Manila Philippines Temple was dedicated in 1984. In addition to the Urdaneta temple, there are three more houses of the Lord under construction — in Alabang (started in June 2020), Davao (November 2020) and Bacolod (December 2021). Seven other temples have been announced and are in planning but without announced sites — in Cagayan de Oro, Iloilo, Laoag, Naga, Santiago, Tacloban City and Tuguegarao City.
The nation is comprised of more than 7,100 islands in the western Pacific Ocean’s Southeast Asia region. The country’s land is roughly the area of Italy or the United States’ Arizona.
Global participants
In 2023, the choir started a pilot project to bring in 10 singers for each general conference from around the world to sing with the choir. Each participant went through a similar audition process as those who live near Salt Lake City.
Two of those singers are from the Philippines — Sundae Mae Indino and Ronald Baa. Both will participate with the choir during sacred music concert on Sunday, Feb. 25, in the Quadricentennial Pavilion of The Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas and the two concerts at the SM Mall of Asia Arena on Feb. 27 and Feb. 28.
Indino, who sings first soprano, grew up watching The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square perform on projected screens. It was a dream to hear the choir sing in person. She both heard them sing and sang with the choir during both the April and October conferences.
Now Indino, of Cagayan de Oro, will be able to sing with the choir in her home country and so many others will be able to hear them in-person.
“Ever since I joined the choir, I’ve been hoping that my family, friends and many more Filipinos can get to hear the choir sing in person,” Indino said. “Now, we’re only days away from that being fulfilled. I know that the Spirit of God will fill our country through the music brought by the choir and orchestra. It’s another dream come true for me.”
Baa, of Cagayan de Oro, said when he first heard the choir in-person, “I really felt overwhelmed with happiness, and I sincerely wished that one day my friends and fellow Filipinos could also hear them, so they could experience the same feelings I had.”
When the Tabernacle Choir announced they would be going to the Philippines on tour, it was what he had hoped for. “Many Filipinos and my friends will have the chance to witness and hear the Tabernacle Choir, and I am sure they will be blessed by this experience,” Baa said.
About the Tabernacle Choir, Orchestra and the ‘Hope’ tour
There are 323 members of the 360-voice volunteer choir on tour and 68 members of the orchestra, along with choir leaders and staff. These “musical missionaries” are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-days and choir members have a monthslong audition process. The choir’s origins date back to 1847 when pioneer members of the Church formed a choir to sing at a conference of the Church weeks after arriving in Utah’s Salt Lake Valley.
The choir and orchestra will be in the Philippines through Thursday, Feb. 29, performing at a sacred music concert on Sunday, Feb. 25, in the Quadricentennial Pavilion of The Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas and two concerts in the SM Mall of Asia Arena on Tuesday, Feb. 27, and Wednesday, Feb. 28. The concert on Feb. 28 will be livestreamed on the choir’s YouTube channel, and local Church leaders are encouraging people to gather to watch it.
Guest performers for the SM Mall of Asia Arena are Broadway singer-actress and “Disney Legend” Lea Salonga, singer-songwriter Ysabelle Cuevas and TV personalities Suzi Entrata-Abrera and Paolo Abrera.
The Philippines is the second stop on the multicity, multiyear “Hope” tour. In June 2023, the choir and orchestra’s first stop was in Mexico last year. Choir officials announced on Wednesday, Feb. 21, that the fall tour Sept. 5-12 will be to Florida and Georgia in the southeastern United States.
