The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square’s Christmas concert for 2024 celebrated the Savior’s birth with stories and songs about service and gifts — through music and reaching out to others, including children.
Broadway singer and Tony Award-winning actress Ruthie Ann Miles, and American actor Dennis Haysbert joined the Tabernacle Choir, Orchestra and Bells at Temple Square and Gabriel Trumpet Ensemble as the featured guest artists during the concerts that began on Thursday, Dec. 19. Also, a surprise guest was invited to the stage in connection with the emotional story shared by Haysbert.
Throughout the concert, from the opening processional of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” as choir members held up lights, to the orchestra’s “Joy to the World” to the finale of “Angels From the Realms of Glory,” the performers musically celebrated the Savior’s birth and life. The music also carried an international flair with carols with French, Catalonian, Nigerian and Indonesian roots, including Richard Elliot’s jazz-inspired organ solo.
The concert continues Friday, Dec. 20, and Saturday, Dec. 21, 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.
‘Share His love’
Miles’ rich soprano soared as she sang “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.”
Miles, an Asian American actor and singer who has recently been in “McNeal” on Broadway, said that, growing up, her mother was the church pianist and choir director.
“I was her very free and available and not-at-all-against-my-will assistant,” Miles said with a laugh. She would help prepare the sheet music for Sundays.
“Nothing can compare to the music of Christmas,” Miles said, noting that her mother was in the audience.
Prior to singing director Mack Wilberg’s arrangement of “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” Miles said she loved the carol, as it is “a reminder that Christ, the child, was a gift to all of us and that Christmas is an opportunity to receive that love, to love Him and to share His love with the world.”
Later in the program she sang a medley of “Spirit of the Season” and “Believe” from “The Polar Express,” which were arranged by assistant director Ryan Murphy.
‘Season for shepherds’
Haysbert, whose brother once played for BYU football, is likely best known for his role in “24.” With his recognizable deep voice, Haysbert shared the story of Charles Mulli, who helps orphaned or abandoned children in his native Kenya. At 6 years old and the oldest of his siblings, Charles woke up one day to find his family had left, including the younger children.
“For most of the next 10 years, Charles was homeless,” Haysbert said of the boy who begged for food by day and slept on the streets at night.
As a teenager, he was invited to church and there learned about Jesus Christ, the Shepherd, and His and God’s love. He found a job as a house boy to a kindly woman, and the woman’s husband helped him find employment as a field clerk. At his new job, Charles met his wife, Esther.
“Charles’ life was unfolding, one miracle after another,” Haysbert said in his signature deep voice. They had eight children and he started businesses that grew and were successful. “The homeless and hapless boy from Kangundo had become an international business executive, a leader in his community and a minister in his local congregation.”
It was a run-in with local homeless children and wrestling with what to do, that changed the course of his and his family’s lives. They began taking in abandoned and homeless children and the family adapted. He sold his businesses. The house was remodeled and classrooms, workshops, dormitories and a chapel were added.
The Mully Children’s Family now has 11 locations with more than 7,800 youth and children in residence, Haysbert said. Charles and Esther Mulli, now in their 70s, still oversee the work their children help carry out. Since 1989, more than 30,000 children have been rescued, Haysbert said.
“Christmas is the season for shepherds,” Haysbert said. “For who would seek out the lost and lonely? And when we find them, in our families, among our friends and through our communities, we will find the Christ child Himself.”
Haysbert invited Charles Mulli up to the stage and asked him a few questions about his experiences.
“We all have to do what we feel … called to do by God,” Mulli said. “The question was: What did God want me to do?”
While he felt he needed to sell his businesses, “it is just as important to do small things, like say hello to a stranger to be a friend.”
The choir sang “What Shall We Give” with music based on a Catalonian carol.
Haysbert also shared the Christmas story in Luke 2.
Music of Christmas
The concert opened with the Gabriel Trumpet Ensemble and then the imploring carol “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” with choir members singing from the loft, on the stage and in groups among the audience. The choir members raised small lights as they sang of the promised Messiah — surrounding the audience members with music. They made their way to the loft to “‘Twas Midnight in the Stable” — a song about being ready for the Savior’s coming. Both were arranged by Wilberg.
After Miles sang the two carols, the Bells at Temple Square joined the choir and orchestra for the light and festive “Welcome Christmas Morning!” which was arranged by Wilberg. It was followed by “Gamelan,” designed to sound like an Indonesian orchestra with the choir rapidly singing series of “ding” and “dong” and debuted during the choir’s “Songs of Hope” tour stop earlier this year.
During the orchestra’s “Joy to the World,” which was arranged by Murphy, the thread of the melody went through each section — giving each a moment to shine — as the piece crescendoed to the end.
A trio of Christmas alleluias followed Miles’ performance of “Spirit of the Season” and “Believe.” First was the peaceful “Alleluia, Amen (Air in G)” by Johann Sebastian Bach. Then the soaring “Alleluia,” from “Psalm 150,” by Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera that has seemingly disjointed individual parts building before coming together to fill the space with music. The Gabriel Trumpet Ensemble joined for the celebratory “Hallelujah” from “Messiah” by George Frideric Handel.
The stage was framed with tall, lighted Christmas trees and poinsettias with the red blooms on the top of the pipes. Projections – including stained glass, candles, winter scenes and the Nativity – surrounded the pipes throughout the concert.
Prior to Elliot’s organ solo, he said the organists enjoyed the talents of the choir, the orchestra and the musical community, along with the gifts and camaraderie.
“Christmas music is many things to many people. Where the organists are concerned, Christmas is an opportunity to express a special kind of exuberance,” Elliott said.
Elliott’s jazzy take on the French carol “When You Hear the Pipe and Drum (Patapan)” energized the audience. It featured orchestra members Daron Bradford on recorder and clarinet, Matt Larson on upright bass, Benjamin Nichols on alto saxophone and Matt Nickle on drums.
The Nigerian carol “Betelehemu” followed with a line of drummers and other percussion instruments as the choir swayed together and clapped.
After Haysbert shared Luke 2, he and Miles joined the 360-voice choir, 90 orchestra members, 32 bell ringers, eight trumpeters and three organists for the traditional finale of “Angels from the Realms of Glory.”
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.
