The way the guest artists for this year’s Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert interact with each other, you’d think they had been working together for quite a while.
A little over 12 hours after their first of three Christmas performances in the 21,000-seat Conference Center, Broadway star Ruthie Ann Miles wrapped her arm around actor Dennis Haysbert, whose typically deep and authoritative voice was quivering with emotion as he recounted telling the life story of Dr. Charles Mulli during the concert — a narration he said could easily make him “blubber through every line.”
And as Miles shared what it meant to have her mom, her musical inspiration, in attendance as she performed Christmas music with a choir she listened to as a child, Haysbert smiled at her and gently patted her arm in support. The two seemed at ease with each other, unafraid to let out their emotions.
But it has only been about a week since Haysbert was officially announced as the concert’s narrator. The two guest artists spent just a few days together in Salt Lake City leading up to Thursday night’s opening concert — in fact, Miles was shocked to learn that the choir and orchestra only practiced together for the first time on Tuesday.
The quick bond everyone has formed, she said, stems in part from the collaborative and warm nature of the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square.
“The choir and orchestra are both so disciplined and so accurate and so intentional ... that it was easy — dare I say easy?” Miles said during a Friday morning press conference in the Conference Center, joking that the hardest part of it all was walking across the stage in heels. “Because everyone knew exactly what their piece of puzzle was in the entire picture, and everyone came prepared with their top game.”
“It felt like I just got embraced into a company that I was hungry for,” she added. “It does not often happen this way. You come in, you sing your song, and then you’re gone, you know? And this has been very different. It really has felt like a welcoming, folding us into a blanket of love.”
With two concerts to go, Miles and Haysbert took a few minutes Friday morning to reflect on the significance of taking part in what has become a beloved annual tradition.
‘Everyone on the planet should hear stories like this’
Haysbert was visibly emotional Thursday night as he told the story of Mulli, who, at the age of six, was abandoned by his parents and then remained homeless for several years before gradually building a business empire in Kenya.
After a change of heart, Mulli ended up selling his businesses and committing his life to rescuing children who were as vulnerable as he had once been — an effort he continues to be actively involved in more than 30 years later.
When Haysbert welcomed Mulli up to the stage Thursday night — Mulli’s attendance had been kept under wraps up until that point — the two shook hands and shared a long hug as the audience gave the philanthropist a massive standing ovation.
Haysbert pulled out a tissue and began wiping his eyes as they proceeded to sit down together on the stage to briefly talk about the power of doing God’s will.
“Every time I read this,” he said, choking up as he tapped his hand a few times over his heart. “Thank you for inspiring us tonight. For inspiring me. Merry Christmas, to you and your family.”
Haysbert was still teary-eyed Friday morning and had to pause several times to regain his composure as he spoke to reporters about his role as narrator.
It was a “no-brainer,” he said, to hop on board after reading the script.
“It was hard for me to get through the first paragraph,” Haysbert said. “That first paragraph killed me, (to) find out that somebody was left alone at six. ... I can’t imagine a child walking to the end of the block in any city in America at six, much less, you know, walking three days to Nairobi. … It’s hard to get through the story, but I love the feeling that comes over me when I do tell it. Everyone on the planet should hear stories like this.”
Mulli, who sat to Haysbert’s left during the Friday morning press conference, offered up even more details of his story.
At the age of 16, he said, he was contemplating taking his life when he received an invitation to attend church. That gave him a renewed sense of purpose and direction.
He went about seeking job opportunities and eventually formed his own transportation company. Over the years, he adjusted to a life of comfort.
And then came the day Mulli turned away homeless children in need of money, which sparked an internal struggle. He ultimately reached the conviction that he needed to give away everything he had and open up his home to children in need.
“For many years, I forgot where I came from,” Mulli said Friday morning. “That is a very common nature of humankind, to forget is very easy.
“It is by faith that you can do great things, not for yourself, but for the one who lives with us here, but above. That is our God,” he added.
Haysbert wiped away tears as he listened to Mulli. The actor, well known for his role in the TV series “24,” said being accompanied by the choir and orchestra as he told Mulli’s story added even another layer of meaning for him.
“It just leaves me full, and I just hope that it’s translating out to the audience — and apparently it is,” he said. “But it is such a glorious feeling to be able to be in this space and deliver this work, and deliver these words, and to know that they are true. … I wish everyone in the world could hear this, I really do.”
An emotional debut for Miles
Miles was also emotional as she made her debut with the Tabernacle Choir Thursday night.
Having her mother in the audience meant the world to her, she said Friday, because music was their primary way of communicating with each other as she was growing up.
The Tony Award-winning singer often helped her mother, who was their church pianist and choir director, make copies of sheet music that the church choir would sing and rehearse on Sundays. On long road trips, when she was an angsty teen, Miles said her mom would diffuse the tension by playing a game with her where she would pick a song and make up a harmony to it — and then challenge her to come up with another harmony. The two would often listen to chamber music and choral music, including the Tabernacle Choir.
“I could never have imagined that one day I might ... be on the stage and performing with them,” she told reporters, adding that it was “an additional gift” to have her mom witness her big moment.
Both Miles and Haysbert praised the Conference Center as a performance venue for its unique quality of being simultaneously large and intimate.
Although Haysbert joked that the “walk from the aisle to the stage seems like forever,” he said he could feel the connection with his audience.
A strategy from Mack Wilberg
This year’s Christmas concerts run through Dec. 21, and they will air on PBS and BYUtv to an even wider audience next year.
Over roughly 90 minutes, the concert manages to seamlessly blend together international carols, a jazzy organ solo, a heartfelt story and Christmas music new and old.
It’s not always easy to make such diverse elements come together to form a cohesive whole, but Mack Wilberg, the choir’s music director, said it’s a strategy that is essential for the ongoing success of the choir’s Christmas concerts.
“It’s like a great meal. If it all has the same taste, it’s not a great meal,” he told reporters. “If there’s a little of this, a little bit of that, but it’s still unified, perhaps it’s been cooked by the same person, so there’s a unification that comes with that experience. And so in music, or in anything else, if everything is the same tempo, if everything is the same texture, it’s going to sound alike. And so we strive for a unity in the program, but then lots of contrast within that unity.”
At this point, the choir’s Christmas program is a fairly well-oiled machine. Wilberg knows what goes into pulling it off and has his strategies to make it happen. But, as he said during a recent Zoom call promoting last year’s concert, which aired on PBS and BYUtv earlier this week, there’s still a moment where he wonders if he’s going to pull it off.
“The Christmas concert certainly is our performance on steroids, if you will, because there are so many elements that have to come together,” he said. “We hold our breath every year.”