Tony Award-winning actor Stephanie J. Block and her husband, Broadway and television star Sebastian Arcelus, will join the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square as the featured guest artists at this year’s Christmas concerts, choir leaders announced Friday, Oct. 24, on TheTabernacleChoir.org, on ChurchofJesusChrist.org and live on KSL-TV.
“Stephanie J. Block and Sebastian Arcelus are wonderful, gifted performers,” Mack Wilberg, the choir’s music director, said in the announcement. “It will be a privilege to share the stage with such talented artists as together we celebrate the Savior’s birth during the Christmas season.”
The Christmas concert, under the direction of Wilberg and Ryan Murphy, associate music director, will be on Dec. 11, 12 and 13 at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City. Tickets, which are free, will be distributed through a random ticket selection beginning Tuesday, Oct. 28. (See below for details.)
About the Christmas guest artists
Block said in the announcement, “We are a prayerful family, so when Christ and family come together to meet the gifts we’ve been given, and the opportunity lends itself to share those gifts at Christmastime, we feel very, very lucky.”
Arcelus said the opportunity to perform with both his wife and the Tabernacle Choir is, “an extraordinary surprise and a great honor.”
Block most recently appeared as Kate in “Kiss Me, Kate” the musical in the Barbican Theatre in London, England, and in the U.S., on Broadway and the national tour as The Baker’s Wife in a revival of “Into the Woods.” Block won the 2019 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical, and The Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for her performance in “The Cher Show.”
She received multiple award nominations for her roles in Lincoln Center Theater’s 2016 revival of “Falsettos,” and for the Roundabout Theater’s production of “The Mystery of Edwin Drood.”
Arcelus most recently portrayed the role of The Baker opposite Block in both the Broadway revival and national tour of “Into the Woods.” On screen, he is best known for his role as Jay Whitman on the long-running CBS series “Madam Secretary” and as Lucas Goodwin on the Netflix original series “House of Cards.” Arcelus has appeared on television, on Broadway and on film and is also a voice actor.
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.
Tabernacle Choir President Michael O. Leavitt said in the news release: “Every year, the Tabernacle Choir looks forward to sharing the message of the birth of our Savior and the joy of the Christmas season through music. As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we look to Jesus Christ for peace and solace and hope that everyone will reach out and feel His love for them during this special time of the year.”
Tickets are free but required for the concerts, which are Thursday, Dec. 11, to Saturday, Dec. 13. Tickets are not required for the 30-minute “Music & the Spoken Word” broadcast on Sunday, Dec. 14, at 9:30 a.m. Block and Arcelus are 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. 28, at 10 a.m. and runs through Friday, Nov. 7, at 11:59 p.m. Mountain Time. Those who receive tickets will be notified on Nov. 19. See TheTabernacleChoir.org/christmas-concert for information.
A standby line will also be available at the Tabernacle on Temple Square 90 minutes prior to the 8 p.m. concerts.
Tickets for the Christmas concert are available to those who attend the orchestra’s sold-out fall concert on Friday, Oct. 24, 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.
For both events, admission will be open to those ages 8 and older.
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.
The 2024 Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert featured Broadway’s Ruthie Ann Miles and film and television actor Dennis Haysbert, who shared about the experiences of Charles Mulli as an orphan in Kenya, finding Christianity, building a business and family, and now helps homeless children in Kenya. Mulli attended the concerts.
The concerts will air on PBS on Dec. 15 and 24 and will also run on BYUtv. The choir is releasing DVD and CD versions of the concert — titled “Hope of the Season: Christmas With The Tabernacle Choir” — and will be available beginning Oct. 25, according to the news release.
See the Tabernacle Choir’s Christmas playlist on its YouTube channel for nearly three dozen songs from past Christmas concerts.
For more information, visit TheTabernacleChoir.org.
