| ChurchBeat | | Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024 |
How To Enjoy Free Christmas Music From the Tabernacle Choir on Temple Square’s Annual Concerts My mom loves Andy Williams, and so as kids we learned an important lesson about Christmas before we could walk or talk: “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” A Christmas without music would be unthinkable, so as we enter the final half of the “Twelve Days of Christmas,” here are recommendations for free music you can stream from official sources of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Stream the Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert on any device Each year, the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square performs three Christmas concerts that are filmed, edited together and broadcast the following year by PBS. The station released the 2023 concert this month, and you can watch it now for free on YouTube. You will enjoy watching that concert even more if you first read this story. Our expert on the choir’s annual Christmas concerts recently spoke to the guest stars, and they provided a backstage pass of sorts, revealing some of their incredible experiences. For example, Broadway star Michael Maliakel said the concert is such a huge production that it makes the show he fronts, “Aladdin,” “feel like a little high school show in comparison.” “The army of people onstage you all see, but the massive operation behind the scenes to make it all work — the fantastic crew, the sound folks, the wardrobe people. They started planning this year’s (concert) I understand as soon as ours was done. So it’s a full yearlong process and they’ve been doing it for over 20 years now, so it’s a really well-oiled machine.” Mack Wilberg, the choir’s music director, said it may seem that way, but it’s so large and complex that it always feels overwhelming. “The Christmas concert certainly is our performance on steroids, if you will, because there are so many elements that have to come together. ... We hold our breath every year,” he said. The 2024 Christmas song from Strive to Be The Church News recently published a story that showed the reach of the Strive to Be channel on Spotify. Strive to Be is music produced by young Latter-day Saints for Christian youth. Here is this year’s Strive to Be Christmas song. The Strive to Be channel on Spotify reached 10.7 million unique listeners over the past year. Here is a link to the Strive to Be YouTube channel. Here are links to the most recent annual Strive to Be albums: 2025 album 2024 album 2023 album A playlist from the Tabernacle Choir’s past Christmas concerts The annual Christmas concert is one of the most sought-after and most-difficult tickets to get in Utah. But again, you can watch past concerts for free. Or you can watch a playlist curated by the choir itself of some of its favorite songs from those concerts. This playlist begins with the brilliant, crystal-clear voice of Broadway star Kelli O’Hara singing “Baby of Bethlehem,” which is followed by one of energetic organist Richard Elliott’s hits, “Mashing Through the Snow.” The playlist included nearly 70 songs. Happy Christmas! |
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About the Church A former Deseret News typesetter, Mattie Cannon’s statue now is one of two that represent Utah in the U.S. Capitol. The Utah Legislature voted to replace a statue of television pioneer Philo T. Farnsworth with that of Martha Hughes Cannon in 2018. The ceremony unveiling the statue at the Capitol was held last week, honoring the Welsh convert who became a suffragist, doctor, the first female state senator in the United States, orator, wife and mother. Read our coverage and see the photographs here. Keeping with the musical theme, the Church News Podcast this week explores how the sacred musical “Savior of the World” inspires audiences and production staff each holiday season. How FamilySearch supported a community project to honor the women and stories of the “Six-Triple-Eight” WWII battalion that are part of a Netflix movie scheduled to be released Friday. My colleague Jacob Hess wrote a great piece about a warm and respectful example of Latter-day Saint-evangelical conversation. How celebrities like Ken Jennings and Nate Bargatze are promoting Giving Machines on social media. |
What I’m Reading ... The New York Times set out to write about pornography and youth. They led with a BYU professor. Don’t you always want to know more about what it’s like to be a kicker for a football team? Well, this story is for you. This story explores how a short window in November and December is the only practical time that Major League Baseball players can find to get married. The piece says that the wedding website The Knot, which surveyed nearly 10,000 couples last year, found that fall is the most popular time for U.S. weddings, with 42% of weddings landing between September and November. |
Richard Elliott and the Gabriel Trumpet Ensemble perform during the annual The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square and Orchestra at Temple Square Christmas concerts at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Dec. 14, 2023. (Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News) |
Michael Maliakel and Lesley Nicol, with arms around each other, smile in front of the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra during the rehearsal on Dec. 13. (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) |
Missionaries sing along during a Christmas concert held at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, on Monday, Dec. 9, 2024. (Adam Fondren, for Deseret News) |
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