For Broadway singer and Tony Award-winning actress, Ruthie Ann Miles, and American actor Dennis Haysbert, performing in the Conference Center as part of The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temples Square’s 2024 Christmas concerts was about contrasts.
“I was just overwhelmed being in this theater because as vast as it is, it also gives you a good hug,” Haysbert said of the 21,000-seat Conference Center during a media event on Friday, Dec. 20.
Miles has performed in large spaces before, but not one quite of the magnitude of the Conference Center.
“It also feels somehow like a Broadway house — very close, very easy to connect with people,” she said.
Miles noted how much care went into the design and technology to help make “this space as comfortable and intimate for the people on this side of the stage.” She added, “It’s very big but very, very special.”
The first rehearsal with the choir, orchestra, bell ringers, guest artists and others all together was on Tuesday, Dec. 17.
“That was the first time that 500 people got together to do it. And the choir and orchestra are both so disciplined and so accurate and so intentional with their musicianship and their instruments,” Miles said. She added that “everyone knew exactly what their piece of the puzzle was in the entire picture and everyone came prepared with their top game. … It flowed so smoothly.”
The hardest part for her? Walking in heels and not tripping in her dress.
This year marks the 25th year of the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra’s Christmas concerts in the Conference Center.
Charles Mulli’s story
The first time Haysbert read the story he would be narrating, he got emotional in the first paragraph. “I’m an emotional man,” he said. During the media event, he paused as his emotions welled when talking about his role in the concert.
In the concert, Haysbert shares a story about the experiences of Charles Mulli, who was abandoned as a child in Kenya at 6 years old and survived on his own. At a time when he decided he no longer wanted to live, he found Christianity and eventually found work and became successful in business. Mulli and his wife had a family of eight children.
“For many years, I forgot where I came from,” Mulli, now 76, who was at the concert, said at the media event as he shared his story. After a run-in with some homeless street children, “God touched my heart again,” he said.
After a wrestle with God in trying to figure out what to do, he decided to sell his businesses and help homeless children.
He announced it to his family at dinner, and they were confused and didn’t know what to do, Mulli said. They worked and slowly began to make contact with children, giving them food.
“I gave everything, and now it is amazing because of [God’s] transformative power,” Mulli said.
The Mully Children’s Family now has 11 locations, with more than 7,800 youth and children in residence.Since 1989, more than 30,000 children have been rescued. Mulli said they also help in the community with providing lunch to local schools.
Mulli credits the Lord with the success of this ministry.
“It is by faith. And that you can do great things not for yourself, but for the One who lives with us here, but above — that is our God,” Mulli said.
Haysbert begins the story standing in one of the aisles and then walking onto the stage. He invited Mulli on the stage and, during the Thursday evening concert, Haysbert and Mulli sat down as Haysbert asked a few questions — going off-script.
Haysbert said as he’s gotten to know Mulli, he wants to go to Kenya and see Mulli’s schools and hear more about Mulli’s experiences and those of his students.
As he narrates the experience and as the music comes up with director Mack Wilberg’s arrangement of “Silent Night,” Haysbert says, “I almost lost it.”
It’s the moment of the emotion of the story, with the music, being with so many people and also connecting with them.
“It just leaves me full, and I just hope that it’s translating out to the audience, and apparently it is,” Haysbert said. “It is such a glorious feeling to be able to be in this space.”
A concert of unity and contrast
In addition to the carols and songs Miles sang and Haysbert sharing Mulli’s emotional story, concert includes a variety of music, from the opening “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”; three different alleluia/hallelujah pieces; the Nigerian carol “Betelehemu”; organist Richard Elliott’s jazzy “When You Hear the Pipe and Drum (Patapan)”; songs featuring the Bells at Temple Square, the Orchestra at Temple Square and Gabriel’s Trumpet; and the Luke 2 story.
For a concert, Wilberg said they like to have unity and contrast.
“It’s like a great meal,” Wilberg explained. “If it all has the same taste, it’s not a great meal. If there’s a little of this and a little bit of that, but it’s still unified.”
If all of the music has the same tempo or the same texture, it’s going to sound alike. “So we strive for unity in the program, but then lots of contrast within that unity. It’s not an easy thing to do.”
The concert includes the 360-voice choir, 90 orchestra members, 32 bell ringers, eight trumpeters and three organists.
The choir, orchestra and bellringers are all volunteers and each group has audition and attendance requirements.
“Ruthie Ann has brought … what you would call a delicious warmth to our performances,” said director Mack Wilberg.
Of Haysbert, Wilberg said: “Sometimes you hear the voice and you don’t see the person, but you know the person behind the voice. And to have both the person and the voice with us for this event is is very, very special.”
Wilberg was also grateful to have Mulli as part of the concert and called it “the frosting on the cake.”
“Thank you, for not only your life, but letting us share it with literally millions of people who will experience this concert in the months to come,” Wilberg said. “So thank you to all of you.”
How to watch the 2023 and 2024 Christmas concerts
The concert continues Friday, Dec. 20, and Saturday, Dec. 21, at 8 p.m. and tickets have been distributed for those performances.
This is the first concert since 2019 where tickets were distributed for the capacity of the 21,000-seat Conference Center in downtown Salt Lake City. Previously, attendance was limited due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and, later, due to parking in and around Temple Square. A standby line was also reinstated this year for each night of the concert. It begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Tabernacle at Temple Square.
Miles and Haysbert will be featured in this week’s “Music & The Spoken Word” on Sunday, Dec. 22, at 9:30 a.m. Attendees are invited to be seated by 9:15 a.m. in the Conference Center and tickets are not required.
This concert will be broadcast on PBS and BYUtv next Christmas season.
The 2023 concert “Joy” premiered on PBS and BYUtv earlier this week and will air and stream on both channels through Christmas.
