Christmas With The Tabernacle Choir

The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square join with award winning artists Lea Salonga and Sir David Suchet for Season of Light: Christmas with The Tabernacle Choir, a festive and uplifting Christmas special. Filmed with a live audience, this concert will illuminate your holiday experience with timeless carols, treasured Christmas songs and a story of heroic service.

This orchestral arrangement of “Ding Dong! Merrily on High” was written especially for this concert by the Choir’s Associate Director, Ryan Murphy. “Ding Dong! Merrily on High” is a melody drawn from Johan Tabourot’s 1588 dance manual Orchésographie, where it functioned as an example of the “branle,” a lively commoner’s dance.

The finale of Camille Saint-Saëns’s “Organ” Symphony No. 3, composed in 1886, juxtaposes the solo organ with the orchestra in a dazzling display of majestic fanfares and triumphant melodies. Watch the organ showpiece of this year’s Christmas concert, where Principal Tabernacle Organist Richard Elliott borrows the Saint-Saëns model and extended this same treatment to the tune of the “Sussex Carol".

The son of Sir Nicholas Winton talks about his father's rescue work during World War II. There are many thousands of people across the world who are alive today because Sir Nicholas Winton helped rescue Jewish children at risk of being murdered by Nazis during the Holocaust. Hear what Nick Winton thinks his father would want, were he alive today.

Watch The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra perform 'Lo, How a Rose E’re Blooming'. This German devotional poem that this hymn is based on, “Es ist ein Ros entsprungen”, dates from the 15th century. Based on Messianic prophecies from Isaiah, the rose in this carol is a symbolic reference to Mary, the mother of Jesus.

World-renowned screen and stage actor Sir David Suchet presents the true and hope-filled story of Sir Nicholas Winton, a real-life hero who saved the lives of hundreds of Jewish children during World War II. Universally moving, and accompanied beautifully by the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra, this part of the special invites hope and welcomes the spirit of sharing goodness this holiday season.

Payapang Daigdig, a beloved Philippine carol, is sometimes regarded as the Filipino equivalent of the Austrian carol “Silent Night,” as both carols refer to the stars as harbingers of peace in the world. This arrangement of “Payapang Daigdig,” which combines the two carols from different centuries and continents, was written by Mack Wilberg especially for Lea Salonga and The Tabernacle Choir.

Watch the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra perform a rousing version of 'Here We Come A-Caroling'. The practice of communal caroling involved going door-to-door at Christmastime offering wishes of prosperity and good health and sharing food or drink together. This carol gained popularity during the Victorian era, when it likely spread to the United States with English immigrants.

Go behind the scenes of Christmas with The Tabernacle Choir with guest artist Sir David Suchet. The renowned star of television and film was terrified when he first walked into the Tabernacle Choir's Conference Center at Temple Square. Hear how he overcame his jitters to join in the storytelling and share his own personal accounts of the truths celebrated at Christmas.

Listen as Lea Salonga sings her stirring rendition of "I'll Be Home for Christmas" with the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra. The wartime origins of “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” underscore both the song’s hope and its poignancy. Lyricist Kim Gannon wasn’t thinking of soldiers specifically when he wrote these lyrics, but rather all people who were separated from their families by World War II.

Lea Salonga, along with The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra perform a moving rendition of "The Story Goes On" from the Broadway musical "Baby. Salonga (who played one of the leads in the 2004 Manila production of "Baby") explains that, like the women in "Baby"', the story of the Holy Nativity is also story about a woman—the virgin Mary—“a first-time mother with a unique role and responsibility.”

Watch the spectacular opening to "Season of Light: Christmas with The Tabernacle Choir." This processional, "When the Shepherds Saw the Light" is based on an old Provençal noël, “Allons bergers, allons, tous.” In this new arrangement by Mack Wilberg, David Warner’s lyrics retain the original noël’s pastoral themes while expounding on the narrative and emotional power of all Christmas stories.