“I could feel my heart pounding,” Stephanie J. Block said as she prepared for a Christmas concert backstage at the conference center.
She said this while standing in an auditorium that can hold up to 21,000 people, in front of Temple Square’s 360-voice Tabernacle Choir and behind Temple Square’s orchestra. “I feel like I’m being held.”
Tony Award-winning actor Bullock and her husband, Broadway and TV star Sebastian Arcels, are guest artists at the 2025 Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square Christmas Concert, which runs through Saturday, Dec. 13 at the Conference Center in downtown Salt Lake City. Tickets for the concert have already been distributed. A line forms at the Tabernacle 90 minutes before the 8pm performance. The concert will be broadcast on PBS and BYUtv next Christmas season.
Block and Arcels will also be featured on this week’s “Music & the Spoken Word” on Sunday, Dec. 14 at 9:30 a.m. Participants are invited to be seated in the conference center by 9:15 a.m. No ticket required.
The first concert was Thursday, December 11th, and the following Friday morning, the 12th, Block and Arcelus, along with the choir’s musical director, Mack Wilberg, answered questions at a news event.
“We had heard about how intimate this space actually was, and that proved to be accurate,” Arcels said.
When Bullock sings “Merry Christmas, Darling”, Arcelus joins her mid-song.
Arcels said, “When I get on stage, it’s even more intimate and the first person I look at is my wife. So it changes the whole chemistry of the night, working together to serve something bigger and live this moment together.”
He added that it was a “transcendental experience”.
The two have worked together before, meeting during production of the North American tour of Wicked. At the time, she was Elphaba and he was Fiyero. They also appear in “Into the Woods.”
Wilberg said he had a Zoom meeting with Block and Arcelus, along with other staff members, to plan the concert.
“We could tell from the beginning that these two were very connected. Can you say very much in love? We knew that. So we knew this was going to be a great experience,” he said.
Bullock appeared in “Kiss Me, Kate” in London, England, and won a Tony Award in 2019 for her role as Cher in “The Cher Show.” Arcels is also known for his role as Jay Whitman on the TV show Madam Secretary.
The story of the Apollo 8 mission
The story of this year’s concert is about the Apollo 8 mission, which orbited the moon in late December 1968. And the three astronauts saw Earth from space for the first time and captured historic Earthrise photos.
“Astronauts are beginning to recognize that we all inhabit Earth as a group of children of God and that there is a need for unity and harmony among us,” said President Gary B. Porter, Second Counselor in the Tabernacle Choir Presidency.
“Therefore, peace on earth and goodwill toward humanity are the underlying themes,” President Porter added.
Astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders broadcast to Earth on Christmas Eve. They read Genesis 10 about the creation and concluded with, “Good night, good luck, Merry Christmas, and God bless you all on this good earth.”
“For me, the desire for peace and the desire for unity are at the heart of what resonates in my heart. … That has changed me,” Arcels said.
build a concert
Wilberg said Bullock was recommended by another Broadway performer, Kelly O’Hara, who was a guest artist at the 2019 Christmas concert. Wilberg then saw Bullock on PBS’s “Kiss Me, Kate.”
Wilberg said that when choir staff contacted Block to explain the story in the Apollo 8 Christmas Eve message, she already knew about the experience because Arcelus had written a play about it and had researched it for years.
Wilberg said, “After talking to Stephanie about this story and knowing he knew more than we did, we couldn’t believe this connection with Sebastian.”
Also, after the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra’s “Songs of Hope” tour in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in August, Wilberg hoped that one of the songs they performed, Astor Piazzolla’s “Adios, Nonino” (“Farewell, Grandpa”), would be included.
Wilberg said that after contacting Arcels, choir staff learned of Arcels’ South American background. His father is from Uruguay, and Arcelus said he spent time in that country.
Usually during a concert, the musician and the narrator have separate parts, with one singing and the latter speaking. Arcelus also had a background in music, so he sang several times during the concert, including the Spanish song “Vamos ya, Pastores” (“Let’s Go, Shepherds”).
Wilberg added: “I couldn’t believe this all came together. I’m so grateful.”
At this year’s concert, images will be projected not only around the conference center’s pipes, but also along the wall above the stage and onto the wall in front of the theater. There are 30 projectors installed around the conference center. Also, during the narration of Apollo 8, a curtain is drawn on the stage in front of the choir and a video or video is projected.
“We spent many hours making all this happen,” Wilberg said.
The concert features a 360-voice choir, 90 orchestra members, 32 bell tones, eight trumpeters, and three organists.
The choir, orchestra, and bell ringers are all volunteers, and each group has audition and attendance requirements.
Block said preparing for a concert like this is different from preparing for a piece in which you play someone else.
“When we do something like this, we’re standing in our true selves. I’m not hiding behind anything, which can make me even more vulnerable,” Bullock said. “The good news is that I have a partner by my side who anchors me and anchors me, because when I’m standing center stage, I want to open up and sing from my own spirit, my own soul.”
Arcels added: “We feel like we’re screwed into a tapestry, like we’re part of a tradition. And you just want to be open and vulnerable and serve a purpose.”
Guest musician from Argentina
This year’s concert featured Argentinian bandonion player Julián Mancilla and violinist Leandro Clava as guests.
Mansilla and Clava guest-starred on the choir and orchestra’s “Songs of Hope” tour in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in August. Mansilla is from Bahia Blanca, and Clava is the principal violinist of the Rosario Symphony Orchestra in Rosario. They are members of the church. Elder Klava is an Area Seventy.
In addition to “Adios, Nonino,” they performed “Vamos Ya, Pastores” (“Let’s Go, Shepherds”) with Arcelus and “El Nacimiento” (“Birth” of “Navidad Nuestra”) with the choir.
Elder Klava is in Salt Lake City for training for his calling as an Area Seventy, which usually takes place in semiannual general conference. The conference center looks different from the stage and from the audience seats.
“I didn’t ask for this,” he said of both his experiences performing with choirs and orchestras in Argentina and Salt Lake City. “It is the tender mercies of the Lord.”
When Mancila heard that a choir and orchestra were coming to Buenos Aires, he knew he needed to do Argentine music. “Adios, Nonino” was one of the pieces he arranged and proposed for performance by choir and orchestra. He was grateful that they accepted it.
“So it was a great opportunity for me to help the choir and orchestra,” he said.
Mancilla said that when arranging music, it is necessary to “preserve not only the essence of the music, but also the essence of the sound of the choir and orchestra.”
Performing with a choir or orchestra is a unique experience. “The Tabernacle Choir not only participates in music-making, but also in one emotion and one faith,” he said at these concerts.
celebrate christmas
For Block and Arcelus, the Christmas season is a season of joy and a season of reaching out to others. They set up four Christmas trees, but Brock continues to make Christmas trees all year round.
They also believe that Christmas music should be listened to not only during Thanksgiving and Christmas.
“Christmas music has an inherent quality of embrace that unites us all and just brings joy,” Arcels said.
“We all just want to connect. So by looking beyond ourselves and, of course, beyond borders and boundaries, we can do that in small ways. Music can be an essential element in uniting all people,” he said.
Bullock and Arcelus’ 10-year-old daughter and several members of her family are in Salt Lake City to see Saturday’s concert.
“Our foundation is faith and understanding, and that faith will take us anywhere in the world,” Block said.
In Christmas concerts, telling the story of the birth of Jesus Christ is the “heart” of the music and narration. “As we go out into the world, that faith and the love of Christ still sustains our journey through the world,” Block said.
