Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert

Stories

Tabernacle concert: hope, joy and mega-music

The word “hope” gets tossed around easily during the holidays.
It’s in the title (“Hope of The Season”) of this year’s Tabernacle Choir concert, which airs at 8 p.m. Dec. 15 and 24 on PBS and often on cable. When the concert reaches its peak — 360 voices doing Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus” — it resonates with hope and joy.
But there are deeper levels here. By coincidence, this year’s soloist (Broadway star Ruthie Ann Miles) has a daughter named Hope. “Our daughter was named after a terrible family tragedy,” she said. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / December 5, 2025
Stories

Fame, fun and a jumbo-sized concert

Fame can bring some odd moments, it seems.
For Lesley Nicol, that was “being recognized in a field in China.” An “ancient old farmer” stared at her, she said, then told a translator: “That’s the lady from the ‘Downton Abbey’ movie.”
And for Mike Maliakel (shown here with Nicol), it was singing in front of the same mega-choir he used to watch on TV. “You physically feel it vibrating through your core.”
Both are featured in the Tabernacle Choir’s Christmas concert on PBS (8 p.m. Dec. 17; 9:30, Dec. 24) and on BYUtv (often, starting 9 p.m. ET Dec. 19). Read more…

By Mike Hughes / December 9, 2024
Stories

Amid a long shutdown, she had some grand moments

For Megan Hilty, the all-or-nothing world of show business hit some extremes.
The Covid shutdown lingered. There were no Broadway shows, no on-camera roles. “To have that taken away was a shock,” she said.
But then there was one busy stretch, a year ago. First, she was hurriedly added to NBC’s “Annie Live,” replacing Jane Krakowski, who had Covid. Two weeks after that, she was in Salt Lake City, surrounded by the 300-voice Tabernacle Choir (formerly Mormon Tabernacle Choir). “It is enormous,” she recalled in a virtual press conference. “It’s almost like bathing in sound.”
That Christmas concert (shown here) will air at 8 p.m. Tuesday (Dec. 13) on PBS and 8 p.m. ET Dec. 18 on BYU-TV. It almost didn’t happen. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / December 7, 2022