Tabernacle Choir, Orchestra’s ‘Songs of Hope’ benefit concert in the Hollywood Bowl celebrates and honors women – Church News

LOS ANGELES, California — Through music and the experiences of several women, The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square celebrated “Songs of Hope,” honored women, raised money to help women and children around the world and testified of the Savior through music during the “Songs of Hope” concerts this week.

The choir was back in the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, California, on Wednesday, June 24, with the orchestra — a century after the choir’s first performance there in 1926. A second concert is scheduled Thursday, June 25.

The two-hour benefit concerts featured several musical artists, including Donny Osmond, David Foster, Katharine McPhee, Stephanie J. Block, Sebastian Arcelus and the Bonner family.

The concert with the 330 choir members and 85 orchestra musicians was a benefit concert in collaboration with the O.C. Tanner Gift of Music Trust.

All of the ticket-sale revenue from the concert will be donated to trusted charities, including 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 focused on improving the health, education and well-being of women and children through local and global efforts.

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

Also, more than 700 watch parties are planned across the United States this weekend on Friday, June 26, or Saturday, June 27. Latter-day Saint stakes outside of Utah were invited to participate by hosting a watch party. The watch parties are free to attend, and many are requesting for attendees to make reservations.

The concert began as the sun set on the amphitheater in the hilly, wooded area known for its natural acoustics. Many of the thousands of concertgoers arrived early, utilizing the tradition of either eating in one of the audience boxes or an available picnicking spot.

Attending the concert Wednesday were Elder Gérald Caussé of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and his wife, Sister Valérie Caussé, and Relief Society General President President Camille N. Johnson and her husband, Brother Douglas Johnson. Also at the performance were members of the Church’s United States West Area presidency and General Authority Seventies: Elder Takashi Wada, area president, and his wife, Sister Naomi Wada; Elder Peter M. Johnson and his wife, Sister Stephanie Johnson; and Elder Wan-Liang Wu and his wife, Sister Marcela Wu.

The Hollywood Bowl concerts are the seventh stop on the volunteer choir and orchestra’s multiyear, multicity “Songs of Hope” tour that started in 2023 and has included performances in Mexico; the Philippines; the southeastern United States’ Florida and Georgia; Peru and Argentina. Earlier this year, the choir and orchestra performed several concerts and a devotional in São Paulo, Brazil.

Honoring women and lifting others

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 again on May 23, 1963.

“In 1926, they stood where I’m standing, and their voices resounded through these hills,” said Arcelus, a Broadway actor and television star.

Several years earlier in the 1920s, the area was known as Daisy Dell and was a popular picnic spot. Two women, pianist Gertrude Ross and soprano Anna Ruzena Sprotte, with a piano trucked up the canyon, performed on a small stage to test the acoustics.

Through the history of the Hollywood Bowl “runs a golden thread of women — remarkable women — who wanted to use the arts to enrich and edify, to nurture hope in everyone,” Arcelus said.

Arcelus welcomed the audience and he and his wife, Block, who is Tony-award winning actress, narrated the concert and also performed. Block and Arcelus were the guest artists for the choir and orchestra’s 2025 Christmas concerts.

“This was their dream come true,” Block said of the women and this concert. “They created all of this to lift others.”

She said she had a similar dream because she wanted to bring joy and hope to people, too. Through those experiences, she met her now-husband. “And then came that moment — that unforgettable moment — when I discovered an even deeper hope of mine that was going to become a reality. I was going to become a mother. I was going to have a baby.”

Block sang “The Story Goes On” from “Baby,” a musical about three couples navigating pregnancy and parenthood.

Arcelus and Block, who are the parents of a daughter, sang the duet “It Takes Two” from the musical “Into the Woods” — reprising their roles as the Baker and the Baker’s Wife in the recent Broadway revival. They were accompanied by choir director Mack Wilberg on the piano.

Despite challenges and risks, it’s “along the way we discover what happens when we choose to work together to make a difference,” Arcelus said.

Singer and actress McPhee performed “The Prayer” from the animated film “Quest for Camelot” with tenor Daniel Emmet, who sings classical pop-crossover music, and accompanied on the piano by Foster, a 16-time Grammy Award winner and composer and producer.

Written by Foster with his friend Carole Bayer Sager, “The Prayer” is about a mother praying for the safety of her teenage daughter.

Foster said: “The song means something different to everyone, of course, but I think everyone would agree that, in the end, it’s about hope.”

McPhee added: “Tonight we share one more song of hope. It’s for all of us who love our children and want to give them a better world.”

McPhee sang Foster’s arrangement of “Somewhere” from “West Side Story” accompanied by Foster on the piano and the Orchestra at Temple Square.

The Bonner Family — composed of mom, Debra Bonner, and dad, Harry Bonner, as well as their eight children and oldest grandchild — sang the upbeat “You’ve Got Soul” by Mauli Bonner and the hymn “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.”

The family, who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, celebrated three generations of women from their family on the stage and also their mother.

“Our story definitely continues,” said Yahosh Bonner.

Just before the family sang “Great Is Thy Faithfulness,” Nolong Bonner said of the family story: “And for us, it goes on with singing songs of hope, like this one, led by our mother, Debra Bonner.”

Osmond, whose career has spanned more than six decades in music, television and live performances, sang and played the piano to a song he wrote titled “Start Again,” as choir members and people waved the lights on their cellphones.

“This goes to show that no matter how difficult our circumstances may be — and we’re all dealing with tough stuff — we all have the ability to start over,” said Osmond, who is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

He pointed to the example of Joseph of Egypt, who Osmond portrayed in more than 2,000 performances of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” as someone who faced challenges and found the strength to overcome.

One lesson Joseph learned was “nothing can shut out the light of God,” Osmond said. “Because when we feel His Spirit, when we feel the love of God’s love, we know how important we are to Him.”

He sang “Close Every Door” from the musical, and the audience responded with cheers and a standing ovation — with Osmond getting a bit emotional. Then with the help of about 80 children from local Latter-day Saint stakes, he sang “Any Dream Will Do” — in the coat of many colors.

With the children, he added a song to the program — “I Am a Child of God” — as the audience sang along.

Finding hope through challenges

Arcelus asked: “Tonight is all about hope. At some point in life, most of us will ask ‘What do we do when we hope is least or at least seems to be?’”

Block and Arcelus shared the story of Horatio and Anna Spafford and their family as the choir and orchestra performed “It Is Well with My Soul.” Anna Spafford and her young daughters were traveling across the Atlantic Ocean in 1873 when their ship was hit, and most of the passengers drowned, including her daughters.

Horatio Spafford boarded a ship, and later the captain pointed they were nearing the spot of the collision.

According to his family, it was there he began writing the words that would become part of the hymn, Arcelus said.

Block continues that Anna Spafford struggled after her rescue until “she heard a voice in her mind and in her heart: ‘You were spared for purpose, Anna. You have a work to do.’”

While the couple still faced challenges, they established a charitable hospital that cared for mothers and children, regardless of their religion or background.

Arcelus said: “Anna remained committed to meeting the needs expressed by Jesus Christ: ‘For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me’ (see Matthew 25: 35-36, 40).”

Block said, the hospital “is the living legacy of a woman who found hope by lifting God’s children and shared that hope with the world.”

‘Songs of Hope’ benefit concert in the Hollywood Bowl

The concert featured more than 20 musical selections — music from each of the guest artists, hymns of praise, “Music of the Masters,” songs from around the world, songs of joy and consolation, hymns of hope — under the direction of Wilberg and associate director Ryan Murphy.

During the concert on the stage of unique nested arches and known as the largest natural amphitheater in the United States, images were projected on the outer edges of the bandshell for each number.

The concert opened with the choir on the John Williams Stage singing “Call of the Champions.” It was the stage’s namesake composer for the 2002 Winter Olympics opening ceremonies and performed there by the Tabernacle Choir.

The hymns of praise were the “Alleluia Fanfare” with ringing bells leading into “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty” — sung on all of the “Songs of Hope” tour stops — and “Join We Now in Praise and Sing.” These are two of the seven pieces in the concert that Wilberg arranged.

After Block and Arcelus’ musical duets, the choir and orchestra performed three pieces of “Music of the Masters,” first with the encouraging “Rise! Up! Arise!” from “St. Paul” by Felix Mendelssohn. It was followed by the soaring “Alleluia” from “Psalm 150,” by Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera that has seemingly disjointed individual parts building before coming together. The audience stood as the choir and orchestra performed “Hallelujah” from George Frideric Handel’s “Messiah.”

Following Foster and McPhee, the choir and orchestra performed three songs from cultures around the world. First was “¡Ah, El Novio No Quiere Dinero!” a Sephardic wedding song in Ladino, a Judeo-Spanish language, that builds to a final crescendo. It was followed by the a cappella “Gamelan,” designed to sound like an Indonesian orchestra with the choir rapidly singing a series of “ding” and “dong,” and the hand-clapping United States folk song “Cindy.”

Block said, “Tonight, we have made a kind of music that will be heard and felt everywhere.”

A trio of songs of joy and consolation followed the Bonner Family: the upbeat “Music Everywhere,” with music by Murphy; the peaceful “The Pilgrim Song,” arranged by Murphy; and the emotional “It Is Well with My Soul” by Horatio Spafford, with the story shared by Block and Arcelus.

The concert concluded with two hymns of hope: “Amazing Grace,” featuring bagpipers Don Smith, Heidi Gilmore, Greg Hubert and Jennifer H. Tew; and the oft-sung “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

The audience cheered and gave the choir and orchestra a standing ovation.

‘What my heart needed’

For many in the audience, it was their first time hearing the Tabernacle Choir and orchestra perform live, saying the concert was “excellent,” “beautiful” and “unbelievable.”

About 15 of soprano Laura Whitney’s family and friends, many of whom aren’t Church members, came to the concert. Whitney, who was born in Burbank, California, had been counting the days to Hollywood Bowl concerts and shared her enthusiasm with fellow choir members.

Did it live up to the expectations? “Absolutely,” she said.

Jim Small, who is from Los Angeles, California, and is one of Whitney’s uncles, said the concert was “excellent,” pointing to the memorable “Hallelujah” chorus and “Battle Hymn of the Republic” as being highlights from the evening.

Small, who comes to the Hollywood Bowl for concerts two to three times a year, said he hadn’t heard the choir and orchestra in-person before and “I would come again.”

For Laura Heiner, of Los Angeles, who came with her husband and daughter, the show was “unbelievable.” The family, who is Catholic, heard about the show through a radio or social media ad and decided to get tickets.

“I never expected the range of pieces the choir would do,” she said, noting that hearing Osmond sing was one of their favorite parts.

A friend invited Amy Valdez of Beverly Hills, California, to the concert. She hadn’t heard of the choir or orchestra and started googling them prior to the performance.

“Everything was so beautiful. I loved it,” Valdez said, saying she got emotional when she heard “Amazing Grace.”

Friends Jeri Mabe and Nona Makinson, of Camarillo, California, listen to the choir’s music, and Makinson said she has the choir’s records and CDs.

Makinson said she’s been wanting to hear them in-person for years. “It was such a variety,” Makinson said of the music. “That’s part of what made it special.”

Choir member April Murray, who sings second soprano, was surprised when longtime family friends from New Mexico, including ones she sang in high school choirs with, found her before the concert. They drove in for the performance.

“It was exactly what my heart needed,” Murray said. She added that she appreciated the excited and enthusiastic audience.

For Sarah Butler, who sings first soprano, the Spaffords’ story and the song “It Is Well with My Soul” is an emotional one. “I can barely sing because I was crying so much.”

Her parents heard the choir when the story was presented in the 2017 Christmas concert. Then, Butler was in the audience. “I remember loving that story.” Now, performing it is a full-circle moment for her.

She added that she feels “so blessed” to perform in the Hollywood Bowl.

“So many incredible things have happened here. And to have the chance to take the stage for a little bit, it’s amazing, like a dream”

The tickets for the concert Thursday are available for purchase through the Hollywood Bowl website at hollywoodbowl.com.

More photos from the concert

Photos from dress rehearsal