The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square will not perform its traditional Christmas concerts for a public audience in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 2021. Instead, choir president Michael O. Leavitt has announced that the December Christmas musical event will be a unique two-hour retrospective television special titled 20 Years of Christmas With The Tabernacle Choir, featuring Broadway’s Brian Stokes Mitchell as narrator and guest soloist. The television broadcast will be available on PBS and BYUtv.
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Leavitt explained, “Every year, the Christmas concert by The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square is a gift to the world from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This year, our gift is this 20th anniversary special with highlights from two decades of concerts celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. Since COVID precluded holding and recording a live Christmas concert last December, we are extremely pleased to continue our decades-long tradition of Christmas programming on PBS, with this exceptional broadcast.”
Tapings for 2022
The choir president also announced that to continue the TV special tradition in 2022, taping sessions with the choir organization ensembles and guest artists will be held in December. These taping sessions will not be open to the public. A small group of invited guests comprised primarily of choir organization members’ families, will be seated in the audience for the closed tapings.
Guest artists Megan Hilty, actress and singer, and actor and producer Neal McDonough will join the choir for the December TV taping sessions.
Read the full release on Church Newsroom.
