Though the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square won’t perform in-person in the Conference Center this Christmas, you can still experience the magic of their Christmas music.
You can relive the 2019 Christmas Concert, Christmas Day in the Morning, in a variety of ways: broadcast, CD, DVD, or even a book. Last year’s concert featured acclaimed singer and actress Kelli O’Hara, as well as renowned actor Richard Thomas.
Here are some of the ways you can invite the Choir into your home this year. A 15% preorder discount is available for the products until October 16, 2020.
► You may also like: 10 famous guests who performed with the Tabernacle Choir at Christmas
2019 Christmas Concert Broadcast
PBS and BYUtv will premiere the 17th annual Christmas with The Tabernacle Choir holiday special featuring Kelli O’Hara and Richard Thomas. Broadcast dates and times for PBS and BYUtv can be found here.
PBS began airing the concert broadcast in 2004. According to the Tabernacle Choir’s website, the 60-minute TV special has consistently ranked at the top of the list of most-viewed holiday programs on PBS. BYUtv has aired the full 90-minute version of the concert since 2017.
This new adaptation of Pearl Buck’s Christmas Day in the Morning recounts the touching story of a man who remembers giving an unusual gift of self in his boyhood—a gift that filled him with Christmas joy. This heartfelt story was narrated in the Choir’s Christmas concert by actor Richard Thomas with music by the Choir and Orchestra. The original story concludes with a letter of gratitude and love written to his wife which awakens his Christmas joy once again. The final pages of this book provide a place for you to write your own letter of gratitude and love—a letter that will most likely help rekindle the Christmas joy that comes from the gratitude we express from our hearts. We all need to remember that the true joy of Christmas is to love and to awaken love.
The Tabernacle Choir, Orchestra at Temple Square, Bells at Temple Square, and guest artists Kelli O’Hara and Richard Thomas celebrate the season through music and touching messages of Christmas—love, selfless service, and gratitude for a Savior who brings peace. The music includes melodies inspired by medieval chant, a calypso carol, an African-American spiritual, a show-tune medley, a bluegrass-styled carol, and a ballad made famous by Nat King Cole—all reminding us that no matter our country or culture, Christmas brings us together from wherever we are. It will remind everyone that the universal message of Christmas is truly our shared peace and joy.
With the DVD, audiences will be able to both view the concert stage and featured artists while listening to the entire music concert. Each year, the Christmas concert brings something unanticipated by the audience. 2019 was no exception. When this concert begins, all that can be seen is the empty stage decorated with suggestions of “Americana.” With the downbeat of the beginning song, audiences see the Choir members as they artfully enter the Conference Center, each carrying a light or lantern that gradually lights up the entire stage—a reminder of the birth of the Light of the World. You will also be able to watch and listen to the heartfelt narration of the Pearl Buck story within a re-created farmhouse kitchen accompanied by the beautiful music of the Choir and Orchestra. These are truly Christmas experiences everyone will remember.
Product descriptions from TabernacleChoir.org.
► You may also like: Tabernacle Choir releases dramatic new Star Wars music video on the 110th anniversary of its first recording