Tabernacle Choir, Orchestra perform 1st ‘Songs of Hope’ concert in Brazil

SÃO PAULO, Brazil — The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square’s first concert in Brazil in 45 years “was a gift,” said Camila Baer, of Londrina, in the state Paraná.

In addition to hearing the choir and orchestra in-person and the choir sing in Portuguese, the Wednesday, Feb. 25, concert was on her 47th birthday.

“I got very emotional,” she said of hearing the choir and orchestra testify of the Savior, Jesus Christ, through music. Baer, who is a pianist and member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said through a translator the concert was “spectacular” and “phenomenal.”

The “Songs of Hope” — “Canções de Esperança” in Portuguese — concert Wednesday was at the Sala São Paulo, a train station that has been converted to a concert hall where the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra performs. Ornate arches and Corinthian columns lined the hall.

The concert featured two Brazilian singers and stage performers — Fabi Bang and Myra Ruiz — known for their portrayals of Glinda and Elphaba in “Wicked” and tenor Nathan Pacheco. The choir sang in both English and Portuguese throughout the concert.

The Tabernacle Choir last performed in São Paulo 45 years ago in May 1981.

Elder Ulisses Soares of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles welcomed the audience of nearly 1,500 people and also those attending a reception before the concert. He was accompanied by his wife, Sister Rosana Soares.

“The Tabernacle Choir has united cultures, generations and nations through a repertoire that encompasses sacred, classical and contemporary works, using music as a universal language capable of bringing to the human spirit a tradition of excellence rooted in the sacred role of music in worship,” Elder Soares said. He grew up in São Paulo, Brazil, attending Church there.

During the reception prior to the concert, he said: “We are servants of Jesus Christ, and I rejoice in this way to share my heart with the world today and share my heart with my people here in Brazil.”

He extended the love and greetings of President Dallin H. Oaks, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

During the reception, Elder Soares greeted the Rev. Dr. Amos C. Brown, pastor emeritus of the Third Baptist Church in San Francisco, California — and friend of the late President Russell M. Nelson — and his wife, Jane Brown. The Browns also greeted Sheikh Mohamad Al Bukai of the Brazil Mosque and Cardinal Odilo Scherer, Archbishop of São Paulo.

Also in attendance at the reception and concert were members of the Tabernacle Choir presidency and the Brazil Area presidency and their wives.

Brazil is the sixth stop on the choir and orchestra’s “Songs of Hope” tour. It is the third in South America with stops in Lima, Peru, and Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2025; and continues the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Church in South America. On Christmas Day in 1925, Elder Melvin J. Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles offered a prayer in Buenos Aires to dedicate the South American continent for the preaching of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

Earlier in the week, Elder Soares accepted on behalf of the Church the highest award the Legislative Assembly of the State of São Paulo can give.

The 320 choir members and 68 orchestra musicians will also present concerts on Friday, Feb. 27, and Saturday, Feb. 28, and devotional on Sunday, March 1, at the Ginásio do Ibirapuera — the same venue the choir performed at in Brazil in 1981. Tickets have been distributed for the concerts.

The concert on Saturday, Feb. 28, at 6 p.m. Brasília Time, 2 p.m. Mountain Standard Time, will be streamed live on the Tabernacle Choir’s YouTube channel. The concert will be available for on-demand streaming after the concert for about a year.

‘Canções de Esperança’ concert

The concert featured more than a dozen songs — hymns of praise, two Psalms, songs from around the world, three “Alleluias,” songs of friendship and comfort and also of joy and hope — under the direction of director Mack Wilberg and associate director Ryan Murphy, filling the room with music.

About 1,500 people filled the auditorium and stood for multiple ovations during the concert. They included government, community and business leaders and also those from arts, education, religious and charitable organizations.

The concert was hosted by Catia Fonseca, Brazilian television presenter, and Márcio Gomes, journalist and anchor of CNN Primetime on CNN Brasil. Throughout the concert, they recognized the choir and orchestra members from Brazil: singers Alan Silva and Álvaro Martins; cellist Marcos Rangel; global members Thalita Carvalho and Rodrigo Domaredzky.

When they invited the choir members with ties to Brazil to stand, nearly half of those in the choir loft stood.

Bang and Ruiz’s mezzo soprano voices soared as they sang solos and a duet. Bang performed “Feed the Birds” from “Mary Poppins” in English, followed by Ruiz’s rendition of the pop song “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”

Bang, wearing dark pink, and Ruiz, wearing green, performed in Portuguese “For Good” from “Wicked,” and embraced at the end of the song.

Later in the concert, Pacheco sang the aria “Nessun Dorma” from the Italian composer Giacomo Puccini’s opera “Turandot.” Pacheco, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, served a mission in Brazil.

The concert opened with hymns of praise: “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty” in English and Portuguese and “Come, Ye Children of the Lord” in Portuguese. Music based on two psalms followed: “How Excellent Thy Name,” the opening chorus from George Frideric Handel’s oratorio “Saul”; and “148th Psalm” with cascading “hallelujahs.”

The choir performed three songs from cultures around the world. First was “¡Ah, El Novio No Quiere Dinero!” a Sephardic wedding song in Ladino, a Judeo-Spanish language. It was followed by “Gamelan,” designed to sound like an Indonesian orchestra with the choir rapidly singing a series of “ding” and “dong,” and the hand-clapping United States folk song “Cindy.”

A trio of alleluias followed, first with the peaceful “Alleluia.” 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 audience stood as the choir and orchestra performed “Hallelujah” from Handel’s “Messiah.”

After Bang and Ruiz’s performance, the choir and orchestra shared three “songs of charm and joy”: the upbeat “Music Everywhere,” the jazzy “What a Wonderful World” and the traditional spiritual “My God is So High.”

The orchestra then played the dancing and playful “Le Bal” from “Jeux d’enfants” or “Child’s Games.”

Following Pacheco’s “Nessun Dorma,” the choir and orchestra performed “Let Us All Press On” in English and Portuguese and “The Spirit of God” in Portuguese.

As the audience gave the choir and orchestra a standing ovation, the choir and orchestra performed two encores: “I Believe in Christ,” in English and Portuguese; and their traditional farewell song of “God Be With You Til We Meet Again,” sung in Portuguese and punctuated with a loud “amen” from the back of the audience.

Ana Clebia, the president of the Liga de Mossoró de Estudos e Combate ao Câncer, a hospital that treats children with cancer, attended the concert with three of the hospital’s doctors — traveling from Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. (The travel distance to Sao Paulo is easier to describe by the three-and-half hour flight time rather than driving distance.)

The Church has made several donations to the hospital from 2024 to 2025, including several children’s beds for the Intensive Care Unit, Clebia said through an interpreter.

Clebia said: “We are really grateful and honored to have been invited to be here. It’s amazing and incredible. I can’t say it in words.”

At the hospital, they use music and art to help the young patients. “There is hope in music,” she said.

Choir member Debbie Kraft, who sings alto, said it’s amazing to see the faces of those in the audience “because you can tell that they are feeling the Spirit and feeling the light that is being delivered.”

She added, “We come here to testify and just having that opportunity to do that, it’s just beyond words.”

After the concert, a group of choir members greeting people after the concert sang happy birthday to Baer, whose husband works in the judicial system.

“Thank you for coming to Brazil to sing for us,” she said to them. “We are very happy you are here.”

Legislative Assembly honor

Elder Soares was presented with the Collar of Honor for Legislative Merit (Colar de Honra ao Mérito Legislativo) on behalf of the Church on Monday, Feb. 23.

It’s the highest award the Legislative Assembly of the State of São Paulo can give, Elder Soares noted in a social post.

“This honor recognizes the 100-year anniversary of the preaching of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ in South America and the humanitarian work carried out by the Church in this state,” he wrote. It was presented by Fabiana Bolsonaro, the state deputy of the Legislative Assembly of São Paulo.

Elder Soares said he is grateful to Church members in Brazil “who give of their time to bless the lives of people in Brazil. Because of their faith in Jesus Christ, they love God and love their neighbor. That is what this recognition represents.”

Correction: An earlier version of this article said that 69 orchestra members were in Brazil. There are 68.