Peabody Award-winning news journalist Tom Brokaw and Tony Award-winning tenor Alfie Boe will be the featured guest artists at this year’s Christmas concerts by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square on 13, 14 and 15 December in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City. The guest artists will also join the Choir and Orchestra for the weekly Music and the Spoken Word broadcast and a mini-concert on Sunday, 16 December.
| Temple Square is always beautiful in the springtime. Gardeners work to prepare the ground for General Conference. © 2012 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. | 1 / 2 |
“We are honored to have these two special guests collaborate with us in our Christmas celebration,” said Ron Jarrett, president of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. “Alfie Boe is a fantastic artist, and we are thrilled to host a performer of his caliber. The narration delivered by Tom Brokaw with his iconic and powerful voice will perfectly complement the musical performances. Audiences are in for incredible performances of story and song.”
Today’s carefully guarded announcement was eagerly anticipated by thousands in the community who have attended the traditional Christmas concerts for over a decade. The free performances are arguably the hottest tickets in town during the Christmas season, and this year will be no exception. “The peace and joy the Choir and Orchestra bring to audiences is our gift at this time of year when the world stops to commemorate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” Jarrett said.
The Grammy Award-winning, all volunteer Mormon Tabernacle Choir is made up of 360 men and women who join their talents to create their trademark, instantly recognizable sound. That world-famous sound is under the direction of music director Mack Wilberg and associate music director Ryan Murphy. The Choir has appeared at 13 world's fairs and expositions, performed at six U.S. presidential inaugurals and sung for numerous worldwide telecasts and special events — all this while broadcasting Music and the Spoken Word, the oldest continuous nationwide network broadcast in America, for over 80 years.
Alfie Boe is perhaps best known to American audiences for his performance as Jean Valjean at the Les Misérables 25th anniversary concerts in London’s O2 Arena that were broadcast over PBS television. He is a celebrated British tenor who has years of formal opera training at such storied British institutions as The Royal College of Music and the National Opera Studio. His talents landed him on Broadway, where he was the lead in a new staging of La Bohème, for which he won a Tony. He has toured extensively throughout the United States with a 17-city U.S. tour taking place this month. He has released a number of top-selling CDs, the latest being Alfie, a collection of timeless pop songs and musical theater favorites. Boe has been honored with such prestigious prizes as the Clonter Opera Prize, the John Christie Award, the Silver Clef for Classical Music, and the Tony Award for excellence in Broadway Theater.
One of the most popular news personalities in the United States, Tom Brokaw is perhaps best known for being the face and voice of NBC Nightly News, which he anchored for more than two decades. In fact, Brokaw has spent his entire distinguished journalism career with NBC News, beginning in 1966 in Los Angeles with KNBC TV. From there, he went to Washington as the White House correspondent and then to the Today Show, followed by his appointment as anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw. Mr. Brokaw is no stranger to Salt Lake City or the Choir, having been here in 2002 for the Olympics and again in 2011 to record 9/11: Rising Above, a Music and the Spoken Word special broadcast commemorating the 10th anniversary of the events of September 11, 2001. (It was very soon after that successful collaboration that the Choir extended the invitation to Mr. Brokaw to return for the 2012 Christmas concerts.) In 1998, Brokaw published his first book, The Greatest Generation. His dedication to the field of journalism has earned him every major honor in his field, including the Peabody and several Dupont and Emmy Awards, as well as lifetime achievement recognitions.
Dates and Location
Thursday, 13 December 2012, at 8:00 p.m. (dress rehearsal)
Friday and Saturday, 14–15 December 2012, at 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, 16 December 2012, at 9:30 a.m. Music and the Spoken Word broadcast plus mini-concert
Conference Center of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Tickets
Free tickets for these concerts and the Music and the Spoken Word broadcast are required. Because of very high demand for tickets to this event, tickets are distributed through a random selection process.
Those interested may register on the Internet at www.lds.org/events for the opportunity to receive tickets from Saturday, 13 October 2012, at 12:01 a.m. through Monday, 22 October 2012 at 11:59 p.m. Those without Internet access may register over the phone at 801-570-0080 (local) or at 1-866-537-8457. All registrations received during those two weeks will have equal chances at receiving tickets in the random selection process.
Not all registrations will be selected to receive tickets, and only one registration per household can be accepted. The maximum number of tickets that a household may request is four. Tickets will be mailed to those selected shortly after the registration process closes. Patrons not selected to receive tickets will be notified by email.
Standby tickets for those without tickets will not be issued. However, patrons are invited to stand by for last-minute seating each evening and on Sunday morning for the Music and the Spoken Word broadcast. The standby line will form at the north gate on Temple Square. Overflow seating will be available in the Tabernacle and the Assembly Hall.
The doors of the Conference Center will open at 6:30 p.m. for the evening performances and at 8:00 a.m. for the 16 December broadcast. The length of the evening performance will be approximately 90 minutes. The broadcast and mini-concert on Sunday should last roughly an hour. Seating is limited to those 8 years of age and older. Given the increase in traffic due to other scheduled downtown holiday events, guests are asked to allow extra time for travel and parking in order to be seated 30 minutes before the performance begins.