When Stephanie J. Block was backstage in the Conference Center and preparing to perform in the Christmas concert, she said, “I could feel my heart beating out of my chest.”
As she came out to the auditorium that seats up to 21,000 people and was in front of the 360-voice Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square and behind the Orchestra at Temple Square, she said, “You do feel like you’re being embraced.”
Block, a Tony Award winning actor, and her husband, Broadway and television star Sebastian Arcelus, are the guest artists for the 2025 Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square Christmas concerts that continue in the Conference Center in downtown Salt Lake City through Saturday, Dec. 13. Tickets have been distributed for the concerts; a standby line will be available at the Tabernacle 90 minutes before the 8 p.m. performances. This concert will be broadcast on PBS and BYUtv next Christmas season.
Block and Arcelus will also be featured in this week’s “Music & The Spoken Word” on Sunday, Dec. 14, at 9:30 a.m. Attendees are invited to be seated by 9:15 a.m. in the Conference Center and tickets are not required.
Mack Wilberg, the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square music director, left, special guest artists, Tony Award-winning actress Stephanie J. Block and her husband, Broadway and television star Sebastian Arcelus, sit on the podium as President Gary B. Porter, second counselor in the Tabernacle Choir presidency, right, speaks during a news conference in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City on Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. | Brian Nicholson, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The first concert was Thursday, Dec. 11, and the following morning on Friday, Dec. 12, Block and Arcelus answered questions during a news event along with Mack Wilberg, the choir’s music director.
Arcelus said: “We had heard of how intimate this space actually is. And it proved to be accurate.”
As Block sings “Merry Christmas, Darling,” Arcelus joins her partway through the song.
Arcelus said: “There’s the additional intimacy, if you will, of stepping onstage and the first person that you lock eyes with is your own wife. So it changes the chemistry of the entire evening to be working together to be living in a moment together in service of something larger together.”
He added that it was a “transcendent experience.”
They have worked together before — they met during the North America touring production of “Wicked,” when she was Elphaba and he was Fiyero. They’ve also been in “Into the Woods.”
Mack Wilberg, the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square music director, joins special guest artists, Tony Award-winning actress Stephanie J. Block and her husband, Broadway and television star Sebastian Arcelus, during a press conference in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City on Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News Wilberg said he and other staff members had Zoom meetings with Block and Arcelus as they planned the concert.
“You could tell from the very beginning that these two were very much connected, and can I say very much in love? You could tell that, and so we knew that this was going to be a great experience,” he said.
Block has been in “Kiss Me, Kate” in London, England, and won a Tony Award and other awards in 2019 for her performance of Cher in “The Cher Show.” Arcelus is also known for his role as Jay Whitman in the television show “Madam Secretary.”
Story of Apollo 8 mission
The story in this year’s concert is about the Apollo 8 mission in late December 1968 to orbit the moon — and the trio of astronauts were the first to see Earth from space, taking the historic earthrise photo.
The astronauts “begin to recognize how we all, as a group of God’s children, populate the Earth, and we ought to have unity and harmony among us,” said President Gary B. Porter, second counselor in the Tabernacle Choir presidency.
“And so peace on Earth and goodwill toward men is an underlying theme,” President Porter added.
The astronauts — Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders — did a broadcast to Earth on Christmas Eve. They read 10 verses from the book of Genesis about the Creation and concluded with: “Good night, good luck, a merry Christmas, and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth.”
Arcelus said: “For me, that sense of an aspirational peace and aspirational unity is really at the heart of what is resonating with me in my heart. … It’s changed me.”
Tony Award-winning actress Stephanie J. Block and her husband, Broadway and television star Sebastian Arcelus, attend a press conference in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City with Mack Wilberg, The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square music director, joins special guest artists, on Friday, Dec. 12, 2025 | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News Building the concert
Block was recommended by another Broadway performer — Kelli O’Hara, who was a guest artist in the 2019 Christmas concert, Wilberg said. Later, Wilberg saw Block in “Kiss Me, Kate” on PBS.
Wilberg said that when the choir staff reached out to Block and were explaining the story with an Apollo 8 Christmas Eve message, she already knew the experience as Arcelus had written a play about it and had studied it for years.
Wilberg said, “We could not believe this connection with Sebastian after talking with Stephanie about the story … and knowing that he knew it better than we did.”
Also, after the Tabernacle Choir and orchestra’s “Songs of Hope” tour stop in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in August, Wilberg hoped one of the songs they performed — “Adios, Nonino” (“Farewell, Grandfather”) by Astor Piazzolla could be included.
After contacting Block, Wilberg said choir staff found out about Arcelus’ background in South America — his father is from Uruguay and Arcelus had spent time in the country.
Mack Wilberg, The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square music director, joins special guest artists, Tony Award-winning actress Stephanie J. Block and her husband, Broadway and television star Sebastian Arcelus, during a press conference in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City on Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News Usually during the concerts, the musical artist and narrator have distinct parts — one singing and the latter speaking. As Arcelus also had a musical background, he also sang several times during the concert, including a song in Spanish — “Vamos ya, Pastores” (“Let’s Go Now, Shepherds”).
Wilberg added: ”We couldn’t believe that this all came together. We’re just so grateful.”
The concert this year includes visual projections not only around the Conference Center pipes, but along walls set up on the stage and out on the walls in the front of the theater. There are 30 projectors around the Conference Center. Also, during the Apollo 8 narration, curtains are pulled across the stage in front of the choir for the projected images and videos.
“It’s just been hours and hours that go into making all of this happen,” Wilberg said.
The concert includes the 360-voice choir, 90 orchestra members, 32 bell ringers, eight trumpeters and three organists.
The choir, orchestra and bell ringers are all volunteers, and each group has audition and attendance requirements.
Tony Award-winning actress Stephanie J. Block and her husband, Broadway and television star Sebastian Arcelus, attend a press conference in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City with Mack Wilberg, The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square music director, joins special guest artists, on Friday, Dec. 12, 2025 | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News Block said preparing for a concert like this is different than for a production, where she’s portraying someone else.
“When we do something like this, we stand in our true self, which might take even more vulnerability because I’m hiding behind nothing,” Block said. “The good news is I have my partner beside me who is able to anchor me and moor me. Because when you are standing center stage, you want to open up your heart and sing from your own spirit, your own soul.”
Arcelus added: “I feel like we’re being threaded into a tapestry. Like, we’re part of a tradition. And you just want to be open, and vulnerable and serve the purpose.”
Guest musicians from Argentina
This year’s concert included guest musicians Julián Mansilla on the bandoneon and violinist Leandro Curaba, both of Argentina.
Both Mansilla and Curaba were guest performers during the choir and orchestra’s “Songs of Hope” tour stop in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in August. Mansilla is from Bahía Blanca, and Curaba is principal violinist of the Rosario Symphony in Rosario. They are members of the Church; Elder Curaba is an Area Seventy.
In addition to “Adiós, Nonino,” they performed “Vamos ya, Pastores” (“Let’s Go Now, Shepherds”) with Arcelus and “El Nacimiento” (“The Birth” from “Navidad Nuestra”) with the choir.
Elder Curaba has come to Salt Lake City for training in his calling as an Area Seventy, which usually happens at the semiannual general conferences. The Conference Center looks different from the stage than it does from the audience seats.
Violinist Leandro Curaba, left, and Julián Mansilla, who plays the bandoneon, are both from Argentina and pause for a photo after a press conference in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City on Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. They were guest musicians in The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square’s 2025 Christmas concerts. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News “I never sought for this,” he said of both the experiences playing with the choir and orchestra in Argentina and in Salt Lake City. “It’s a tender mercy of the Lord.”
For Mansilla, when he heard the choir and orchestra were coming to Buenos Aires, he figured they would need to do Argentine music. “Adiós, Nonino” was one of the songs he arranged and proposed for the choir and orchestra to perform. He was grateful they accepted it.
“So for me, it was a marvelous opportunity to help the choir and the orchestra,” he said.
When arranging music, Mansilla said, it needs “to preserve the essence of the music, but also the essence of the sound of a choir and the orchestra.”
Playing with the choir and orchestra is a unique experience. “Tabernacle Choir does not just join in making music, but they also join in one feeling and one faith” in these concerts, he said.
Leandro Curaba, left, and Julián Mansilla, right, perform with The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square during the Christmas concert in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. | Tess Crowley, Deseret News Celebrating Christmas
For Block and Arcelus, the Christmas season is one of joy and reaching out to others. They set up four Christmas trees — and Block keeps up one year-round.
Also, they believe Christmas music should be listened to more than just between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Arcelus said, “Christmas music has that essential quality, that embrace, that brings us all together; it just brings joy.”
“We’re all just wanting to connect, and so we can do that in a tiny way by looking beyond ourselves and looking beyond, as we obviously say, our borders and boundaries, music can be that essential ingredient in unifying all people,” he said.
Mack Wilberg, The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square music director, joins special guest artists, Tony Award-winning actress Stephanie J. Block and her husband, Broadway and television star Sebastian Arcelus, during a press conference in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City on Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News Block and Arcelus’ 10-year-old daughter and several of their family members are coming to Salt Lake City to see the Saturday concert.
Block said, “Our foundation is our faith and our understanding, and that faith carries us with us wherever we go in the world.”
During the Christmas concert, telling the story of Jesus Christ’s birth is “at the core” of the music and the narration. “When we go out into the world, our walk in the world is still fueled by that faith and Christ’s love,” Block said.
Tony Award-winning actress Stephanie J. Block and her husband, Broadway and television star Sebastian Arcelus, attend a press conference in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City with Mack Wilberg, the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square music director, on Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News ‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.thechurchnews.com ’
