Broadway star Ruthie Ann Miles will be the guest artist at The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square’s annual Christmas concert, choir leaders announced Friday, Oct. 11, on TheTabernacleChoir.org, on ChurchofJesusChrist.org and live on KSL-TV. A narrator will be announced later.
“Ruthie Ann is not only a wonderful singer and actress, but she’s also a very warm and generous person, and I think our audiences love her,” choir director Mack Wilberg said.
The Christmas concert, under the direction of Wilberg and Ryan Murphy, associate music director, will be on Dec. 19, 20 and 21 at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City. Tickets, which are free, will be distributed through a random ticket selection. (See below for details.)
Also for the first time since 2019, the Conference Center will be available at its 21,000-seat capacity after seating restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic and then construction on and around Temple Square. A standby line will also be available at the Tabernacle on Temple Square 90 minutes prior to the 8 p.m. concerts.
“An audience always inspires the performer,” Wilberg said. “And I think having the conference, and being completely full this year will be just icing on the case of what we do.”
About the Christmas guest artist
Miles is starring in “McNeal” on Broadway at the Lincoln Center Theater. She won a Tony Award for featured actress in a musical for her performance in “The King and I” in 2015 and was also nominated for Grammy and Olivier awards. She received a Tony Award nomination in the same category for her role in the Broadway revival of “Sweeney Todd.” Miles also known for her role as Margaret Johnson in “The Light in the Piazza.” She has played many stage and television roles, including a recurring role in “The Americans” and “All Rise.”
Miles, a Korean-American, was raised in Hawaii in a musical household. She lives in New York with her husband, Jonathan, and daughter, Hope.
Tickets to the Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert
The concert — with the 360-voice choir, 150 instrumentalists in the Orchestra at Temple Square and 32 bell ringers from the Bells at Temple Square, all of whom are volunteers — celebrating the birth of the Savior, Jesus Christ, will be in the Conference Center at Temple Square.
Tickets are free but required for the concerts, which are Thursday, Dec. 19, to Saturday, Dec. 21. Tickets are not required for the 30-minute “Music & the Spoken Word” broadcast on Sunday, Dec. 22, at 9:30 a.m. Miles is scheduled to perform on the broadcast.
Tickets for the Christmas concert are also being distributed through a random selection process up to four per household. The registration opens on Tuesday, Oct. 15, at noon and runs through Friday, Nov. 1, at 11:59 p.m. Mountain Time. Tickets will be distributed the following week through Friday, Nov.10, according to information from the choir. Full details can be found at TheTabernacleChoir.org/christmas-concert-2024.
Tickets for the Christmas concert are available to those who attend the orchestra’s sold-out fall concert on Friday, Oct. 25, at 7:30 p.m. in the Salt Lake Tabernacle and through a random selection process.
For the orchestra’s fall concert, those who attend in the Tabernacle will be able to exchange their ticket for a general admission ticket to the Christmas concert with The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra on Temple Square. The exchange for Christmas concert tickets will take place in the Tabernacle after the Orchestra at Temple Square’s fall concert, according to the announcement about the fall concert. Tickets for the orchestra’s fall concert are sold out.
For both events, admission will be open to those ages 8 and older. As was the case for the recent general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Conference Center will be at full capacity, according to the announcement.
The Tabernacle Choir’s Christmas concerts
The first Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert was in 2000 with soul singer Gladys Knight and “Touched By An Angel” actor Roma Downey. In 2001, Angela Lansbury, who starred in “Murder, She Wrote,” joined the choir and orchestra.
PBS began broadcasting a 60-minute recording of the previous year’s concert in 2004. Since 2017, BYUtv joined with the choir to produce the 90-minute broadcast specials.
In 2020, the live concert was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Choir and orchestra officials worked with BYUtv to produce the “20 Years of Christmas With the Tabernacle Choir” special with Tony Award-winner Brian Stokes Mitchell that aired in 2021.
In 2021, the concert had a limited audience. Broadway star Megan Hilty and actor Neal McDonough joined the choir, the Orchestra and the Bells at Temple Square and the Gabriel Trumpet Ensemble for a performance that was recorded and aired in 2022.
In 2022, “Disney Legend” and Broadway singer Lea Salonga, who is the singing voice of Princess Jasmine from “Aladdin” and Fa Mulan for “Mulan” and “Mulan II,” was a guest artist and Sir David Suchet, British stage, screen and television actor, was the narrator. The 2022 Christmas concert was opened to the public after two years of pandemic-related precautions. “Season of Light” will be available again for streaming on BYUtv starting Friday, Nov. 1.
Salonga was also the guest artist during the choir and orchestra’s “Songs of Hope” tour stop in her native Philippines.
In 2023, Michael Maliakel, an Indian American actor and singer who was in the title role in Disney’s “Aladdin” on Broadway, and British actor Lesley Nicol who is known for her portrayal of Mrs. Patmore in “Downton Abbey” joined the choir and orchestra for the musical celebration of the Savior’s birth.
The 2023 Christmas concert — “Joy: Christmas with The Tabernacle Choir” — will be broadcast on PBS and BYUtv for the 2024 Christmas season. On PBS, it is scheduled to start streaming on Wednesday, Nov. 27, and the television premiere is Dec. 17, at 8 p.m. EST/7 p.m. CST, and will also air on Dec. 24 at 9:30 p.m. See pbs.org/show/christmas-tabernacle-choir for broadcast information. “Joy” will also run on BYUtv from Dec. 21-25.
The choir will also release the CD and DVD versions of the concert.
See the Tabernacle Choir’s Christmas playlist on its YouTube channel for about two dozen songs from past Christmas concerts.
For more information, visit TheTabernacleChoir.org.
