Hope of the Season, Christmas with the Tabernacle Choir.
I was asked to cover the Christmas Concert of Tabernacle Choir (Formerly known as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir) at Temple Square, in October 2024. I was asked not to release the story until now (having just covered the concert for 2025).
I am no longer a practicing member of the LDS Church, but having been raised in the LDS faith, I was also raised listening to the music of this magnificent choir. I still love its music, and an opportunity to cover something as big and great as this is an honor. This specific concert the choir performs yearly is for everyone, to transcend any sort of doctrine or dogma between any religion, but deliver the same message from Jesus Christ, a message of hope and of peace, and to inspire us to become better people. No matter what your faith is, Christian or not, faith or not, the message of Jesus Christ for everyone, “Love thy neighbor”, help each other, take care of those less fortunate, as those ideals are a perfect moral philosophy, regardless of your beliefs.
All of that, and I am a complete and total sucker for choral music; I have self-control, I am, in fact, totally spineless.
This event is in the LDS Conference Center, which takes up an entire city block, and has the capacity of 21,000 seats, the same as Madison Square Garden, and is built lengthwise so everyone has a good view of the stage. The center is actually a large recording studio, a vast pipe organ, and seats for the choir, orchestra, bell ringers, ballet dancers, opera singers, and whoever else is in the production. It was designed to be an intimate venue, where if you’re in the worst seat in the house, back row on tier 3, you’ll still feel the message as you do in section 1, row 1, seat 1.
The night I attended was narrated by actor Dennis Haysbert, and vocal performances of actress and singer Ruthie Anne Miles, and so many other wonderful performances.
I was by the sound booth to photograph and take notes when the lights went down, and a row of “Herald Trumpeters” opened up, and the members of the Tabernacle Choir were lining the aisles holding small lamps in their hands, looking like the small oil lamps people in ancient Israel carried in the darkness. They began singing “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”, the way their voices carried almost as if they were Gregorian Monks. Trumpets began to build up into a magnificent crescendo with the orchestra making you feel like you were in the soundtrack to something as grand as “The Ten Commandments” (only more serene, to be honest).
They filed down the aisles to their seats on the stage as the bell ringers began to play to a cadence into “Twas Midnight In the Stable”. As they walked past, an old friend whom I hadn’t seen in years saw me and winked. I guess I know what he has been doing. While one of the most talented men in orchestral and choral music, Mac Wilberg, conducted this very, very large ensemble. And I have to tell all of you, those bell ringers were something else.
There was a beautiful blue motif throughout the entire venue; it was truly breathtaking to see all of this, with a projection of candles burning on the walls around the organ.
If you can imagine “Hark The Herald Angels Sing” by Felix Mendelssohn (the great composer who was actually Jewish), starting off with tympani drums, then a 20-instrument brass section, and a full orchestra welcoming Ruthie Anne Miles, and the entire choir backing her up. It was nothing short of just powerful. I am a fan of her work, but hearing it in person was really moving. I felt enough in these moments to make me wish I still believed.
Ruthie greeted everyone and told her story of how she got into music, as the child of a Korean immigrant, she thanked her mother for planting the seed, but she never thought she would end up here performing like this. Then she sang “Oh Little Town Of Bethlehem” to a single harp and a flute.
The Choir sang a few Christmas songs, “Welcome Christmas Morning”, “Gamelan” with the choir in 12 part harmony, providing the sounds of bells ringing. “Joy To the World” which, if you like French Horns, or piccolos, then this one was for you.
Ruthie Anne Miles came back to sing with the choir “Spirit of the Season” from The Polar Express, giving us something contemporary. On this one, I saw a lot of the children light up. I have to say this was well done. I had read the book and loved it, but there was something to the music they created for the film. Ruthie has such a pure voice that instills hope, the first time I felt this from a woman’s voice like in “Camelot”, or “The Wizard of Oz”, and as she sang this song here like this, I felt like I was in OZ.
The Choir and orchestra played the most divine “Alleluia, Amen” by Bach. Knowing this piece by heart, I was surprised at how much this one just grabbed my soul. I just sat in a chair next to one of the camera guys, closed my eyes, and swayed to where those voices want to take me. I must have looked like an idiot sitting in a chair moving back and forth like Stevie Wonder in the video for “We Are The World”, but that was all I could do. All of this was followed by “Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s “The Messiah”.
They played a few measures of “When you hear the Pipe and Drum” (“Patapan” in French), and in a single beat, a jazz trio came in right on top of it all and took over. This was by far the grooviest version of this song I have ever heard, staying true to it, but sax playing off the organ and Dixieland clarinet played while the projections of Christmas trees were on the walls, along with festive motifs. Hearing a Jazz performance on one of the most magnificent pipe organs in the world, well, something I never expected, and will never forget.
As this was happening, I saw Dennis Haysbert walking past, checking his earpiece, getting ready to make his entrance. I made eye contact and held out my fist. He gave me a fist bump and a smile, and then the spotlights were on him. He is just as impressive in person as he was in the role of President Palmer in the TV series “24”. He greeted the audience and explained the history of the Christmas concerts, and that each one had a story.
The same stars that overlooked Bethlehem 2000 years ago are the same stars that are looking over the children of Kenya. This story is about 70 years ago, a boy named Charles Mulli was made an orphan. His parents left with his younger siblings to forge a better life and had abandoned him. He was left to fend for himself at age 6. He became one of a hundred thousand orphans in Kenya; that number is 3 million today. One in 5 of these orphans perished before their 5th birthday. (While telling this story, Dennis started to cry, choking, and visibly having a hard time reading the script from the teleprompter.) This boy, Charles, was unable to find a home, but was begging for food by day, sleeping in the streets at night. At age 16, he was standing on a bridge ready to jump and end it all when hand touched his shoulder and invited him to church. There, he was told “God Loves You” he knew he wasn’t alone. He walked to Nairobi over 3 days. A woman hired him to be a house worker, and he then went on to manage farm workers. He married, started a family, started businesses, and became very successful. He was one of the wealthiest men in Eastern Kenya when one day he was in town, and his car was stolen by some youth who had asked him for some money for food. He realized he was supposed to help those children, and he “Wrestled with God” wanting to know what to do. He was told to rescue those children who were as vulnerable as he had been. He told his family they were going to sell all they had to bring these children home and provide for them. He went into the slums on Christmas Day, 1989, calling the abandoned children to come out and go home with him. With 3 children that first night, he founded an orphanage, and the mission grew.
The family cultivated an environment where these children were cared for, and went to school, as of now, 60 thousand children had been “rescued”, and have been able to move forward in life.
While he talked about Charles Mulli and his “Family”, and the generations of kids he has rescued, calling him “The Father to The Fatherless”, and that he would again go out on Christmas Eve, to find these children and bring them home. Citing “Inasmuch as ye have done this unto the least of these, ye have done it unto me”. May shepherding God’s children be our work this year, may loving them be our joy this Christmas, was the message for “Silent Night”.
Feeling so much love from all of this, just grasping on to this message of how personal kindness can change the world for someone, I felt drained, and was in tears.
Dennis said, “Tonight’s story is special, and here’s why. Please welcome all the way from Kenya, Africa, Dr Charles Mulli.” Mulli walked onto the stage and they embraced. Dennis pulled out his handkerchief and started to wipe his eyes. Mulli said it was an honor to be here today, and they just started talking about how they are helping people around Africa. Dennis asked him, Why not keep your businesses and help these people with the profits. Mulli explained that he felt the need to be there with those children and that he was unable to do that while managing his companies. He talked about how it was hard to give all that up, but he gave it all up to share in gods love. What I can tell you (on the night I was there, not the broadcast night) is that I saw the teleprompter, and Dennis and Mulli just started conversing off script, and Dennis lost his composure and cried. He said he can’t imagine letting his kids go to the mailbox alone, let alone abandoning them. That moment between those two men was so real, raw, and perfect. I was touched to see Dennis actually lose it the way he did. I have such undying respect for him, and how he allowed his emotions to take over the conversation.
I have no idea what the next song was; it didn’t matter, there was so much love in that expansive hall.
Overwhelmed by the feelings of hope, Dennis Haysbert stood in an African decorative robe and recited the 2nd Chapter of Luke, from the King James Version of The Bible, while the music played in the background.
Out of nowhere, Ruthie appeared in a different dress, and she began singing “Angels From The Realms Of Glory”, in sheer sweetness that just elevated everyone’s experience. As she sang the chorus, the women’s voices of the choir carried her voice to something pretty lofty. This was amazing, and I can honestly say this moment was the only thing that could steal the show from what we had just experienced with Dennis and Dr Charles Mulli. All of the choir were holding their “ancient” oil lamps while they closed the night out.
Tonight, we were shown that these teachings attributed to Jesus are in themselves a religion, something you can build on. Helping others will make you a better person. If there is nothing that can be proven for an afterlife, or what happens when we leave this life. We learned that we can do small and great things, that in many ways are immeasurable, ask yourself, regardless of what you believe, what can you do to change this world for the better?
AFTERMATH
The next morning, I was in a press conference with Dr. Mulli, Ruthie, and Dennis. It was there that I got to ask them about the previous night, and Dennis explained how he lost his composure and how that moment, he was just so overcome with the weight of the entire story. He again reiterated how he can’t even imagine a child going out of the sight of their parents, even to the mailbox, and that to think of parents leaving a 6-year-old behind to escape debt and poverty was suddenly too real at that moment. I took that moment to tell him he was still my favorite president as he took the role in “24”.
Dr. Mulli filled in some more details for us about his journey, and how the very depths of despair, in the effort to take his own life, someone intervened who cared enough to stop and take a moment to tell him that he matters, and that God loved him. (Remember that everyone, GOD DOES LOVE YOU).
May the creator of this universe bless you with love and generosity to reach those less fortunate than ourselves. This guy from Galilee told us all how great it would be if we were all kind to each other, no matter who you come in contact with, it seems as current now, as it did 2000 years ago.
One of the performances of that weekend was broadcasted on PBS, titled “Hope Of The Season”.
