Guest artists at the Tabernacle Choir’s Hollywood Bowl – Church News

LOS ANGELES, California — While planning for the program for the “Songs of Hope” benefit concert in the Hollywood Bowl began months ago, there were recent changes that “meant we hadn’t settled the repertoire until last Friday [June 19],” said Mack Wilberg, music director of The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square.

“That’s how I ended up playing one of the pieces,” he said during a news conference on Thursday, June 25, about the concert the evening before on Wednesday, June 24, in the iconic venue in Los Angeles, California. “I thought, ‘How hard could it be?’ It was hard.”

Wilberg said that despite the challenges, it all came together “beautifully.”

“The sound was probably some of the best sounds that we have had in this kind of setting, particularly outdoors,” Wilberg noted.

The news conference included Elder Gérald Caussé of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Relief Society General President Camille N. Johnson and several of the guest artists, including Donny Osmond, Stephanie J. Block, Sebastian Arcelus, Daniel Emmet and members of the Bonner family. Tabernacle Choir President Michael O. Leavitt and the OC Tanner CEO and president, Scott Sperry, also spoke.

David Foster and Katharine McPhee also performed in the concerts, but weren’t able to be at the news conference.

Elder Caussé said the concert on Wednesday, June 24, in the Hollywood Bowl was “extraordinary.”

The choir and orchestra’s role goes beyond creating beautiful music, he said. “It is to do it in the Spirit of the Lord. It’s a way for them to share their witness of Christ through music, and music is such a unifying way to get communities together, and this is what happened” at the concert.

He invited all either attending in-person or at a watch party to “to listen to this music with a spirit in mind, the Spirit of the Lord, and to embrace the values that will be exemplified in the music, but also in the words that will be spoken, particularly values of peace, values of love, values of hope.

“It is a ‘Songs of Hope’ tour, and so we hope everybody will find a renewed hope in their lives.”

The Tabernacle Choir first performed in the Hollywood Bowl a century ago, on July 28, 1926. The choir returned to the Hollywood Bowl stage on Aug. 20, 1941, and May 23, 1963.

‘You feel that power behind you’

Osmond said he wished everyone could have the experience of being on stage with the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra. There were 330 singers and 85 instrumental musicians performing in the Hollywood Bowl.

“When you’re singing, and you feel that power behind you with all those voices — I don’t even have the vocabulary to explain that feeling,” Osmond said. “It’s glorious, it’s spiritual, it’s heavenly. And it was such an honor to share this day for such wonderful talent up here.”

Block and Arcelus, a married couple, were the guest artists for the choir’s 2025 Christmas concerts, and Block said they figured it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. And they were invited back.

“There are moments in life where you just know you will be creating something far bigger than yourself, and that always happens with the Tabernacle Choir,” Block said. The experiences have been Spirit-filled, genuine and authentic.

“You do feel like a little part of good is going out into the world,” she said.

One of their songs was changed days before the concert to “It Takes Two” from the musical “Into the Woods” — one Block and Arcelus performed in the Broadway revival of the show — this time with Wilberg accompanying them on the piano.

Arcelus said singing in Hollywood Bowl with the choir and orchestra and all of the artistry both onstage and backstage, “You can’t help but feel like you are exactly where you should be in that moment.”

He said at the beginning of the first song, he looked at the choir and saw Wilberg smiling. If the director was enjoying it, Arcelus figured he probably should, too.

When Arcelus was introducing Osmond during the concert, Arcelus said, unscripted, “Please welcome my wife’s first crush, Mr. Donny Osmond.”

Block said that it’s true. She would watch the “Donny and Marie Show” and Block has been trying to see if he was wearing purple socks.

Emmet, who sings “The Prayer” with Katharine McPhee, said it was last week when he was asked to be part of the concert. It’s his first time performing with the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra.

“It was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced, and I’m so honored and proud to have been a part of that,” he said.

Emmet said he’s been a fan of Wilberg and the choir. “It was such a surreal experience to be supported by that gold standard of musicianship,” he said.

Debra Bonner, the matriarch of the Bonner Family singing group, was a guest soloist in 1996 in a performance with the choir. “It was the most spiritual experience to this date that I’ve ever had.”

Now, she has performed with the Tabernacle Choir again, this time with her husband, Harry Bonner, and eight children and a granddaughter.

Harry Bonner said he noticed how personable and like family the group of artists felt. “There was a tremendous amount of love and spirituality that carried among the artists here, and that’s powerful,” he said.

A concert and call to action

The concerts at this final “Songs of Hope” tour stop are unique because they are benefit concerts and some 700 watch parties were scheduled across the United States — more than in other previous tour stops.

The proceeds from the Hollywood Bowl ticket sales will be donated to three trusted charities that the Church has collaborated with: CARE, Helen Keller Intl and The Hunger Project. These charities work with Caring for Women and Children, an initiative led by the Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that is focused on improving the health, education and well-being of women and children through local and global efforts, including maternal and newborn care, immunizations and child nutrition.

President Johnson said, “I know that the hope of these women around the world will be realized because we brought together a beautiful humanitarian cause, caring for women and children with remarkable talent of these good artists and people.”

The Church will match the revenue from concert ticket sales, doubling the charitable contributions from the event.

“We know that when we bless a woman with knowledge and information and education and good health, her whole family benefits, her community benefits. And, of course, every time we invest in a child, it’s an investment in the future,” President Johnson said.

While the work of those groups can help those around the world, individuals can help those in their communities, she said.

“This concert is not just a glorious occasion for celebration, but a call to action. It’s an invitation to each of you to look around in your own communities and identify the needs of women and children. This, your local actions, will lead to global impact,” President Johnson said.

Sperry, the president and CEO of the O.C. Tanner Co., said that OC Tanner Gift of Music has had a collaborative relationship with the Tabernacle Choir for 43 years.

The concert series was the idea of neighbors Obert C. Tanner, businessman and philanthropist, and President Gordon B. Hinckley, then an Apostle and later President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to help encourage unity among the community. The first concert was in 1983.

Initially, the collaboration began with the Tabernacle Choir and Utah Symphony performing a free community concert together every few years.

Sperry said: “The Gift of Music Trust and the choir have sought to expand the original community-focused vision on the broader, more global purpose. The Hollywood Bowl performances mark the first expression of this expanded collaboration with the goal of uniting music, faith and philanthropy on a global scale.”

President Leavitt said of the Church’s humanitarian efforts, “We’re deeply grateful as a choir that we can contribute to this effort.”

He added that the choir and orchestra’s concert was a “spectacular success.”

President Leavitt said Los Angeles is the final stop in the choir and orchestra’s “Songs of Hope” multicity, multiyear world tour that has included performances in Mexico in 2023, the Philippines and the southeastern United States’ Florida and Georgia in 2024, Peru and Argentina in 2025 and Brazil in February 2026.

At each place, their performances have been amplified through watch parties, he said.

For this concert, those are planned for Friday, June 26, or Saturday, June 27. President Leavitt said that many of those include service projects.