The excitement of another bright and glorious Christmas season has descended upon Temple Square, and that means it is once again time to write about the annual Christmas Concerts of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square.
This year’s guests will be the world-renowned men’s ensemble, The King’s Singers. Unfortunately – as usual – all 80,000+ tickets have been distributed, with no hope of meeting the total demand. And so I continue my practice of writing about the concert that most people will be able to see for the first time this year – the nationwide PBS broadcast of last year’s program, “Christmas with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Featuring Sissel.” Our Guest If you have never heard of Sissel, then you probably have no idea how much you should be anticipating this broadcast. Take it from her millions of devoted fans all over the world – “European singing sensation” Sissel is an absolute phenomenon!
Her full name is Sissel Krkjeb (“Ksheerk-sha-buh” is a close approximation) and she is a national institution in her native Norway. Some of her earliest memories are of the joy of singing; she joined a children’s choir at age three. She rose to prominence in her teens, recording her first album at age seventeen. Her world celebrity began when she sang the Olympic Hymn at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer. She later performed with Plcido Domingo and Jose Carreras at the first Christmas concert in Moscow and provided the haunting, ethereal vocal tracks for the soundtrack to the film Titanic. She is now known the world over and has sold more than six million solo albums. Adding to that total is her new collaboration with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square, “Spirit of the Season.” Produced from live recordings of the 2006 Christmas concerts and released this past September, it has already risen to number one on Billboard’s Classical chart, has remained there for five consecutive weeks at the time of this writing, and it has just been announced that it has been nominated for two GRAMMY awards – “Best Classical Crossover Album” and “Best Engineered Album, Classical.” Singing Together The album is fantastic; but while one can hear the smile in her voice by listening, it was even better to see that beautiful smile when Sissel performed before the audience in the Conference Center. (And thanks to the DVD, Christmas with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Vol. 4, featuring Sissel you can see it even though the concert is past.) That smile alone would bring enormous appeal, but there is more! “Angelic” comes first to mind when describing her performance. Her voice is pure, effortless, unencumbered; she is very genuine and has a winning and graceful stage presence. And most of all, while all of the Christmas concerts have had a wonderful spirit to them, this one had a deeper spiritual sense than any in recent memory. A clue to this spiritual dimension may be found in the DVD of the concert, which features an interview in which Sissel talks of her feelings about singing. “I really enjoy singing with the Choir so much because I love the sound of voices;” she says, “I love the sound of singing together and just the joy that you have inside of yourself, and [to] be able to give it out; to let it out and share that with others – that’s fantastic!” This corresponds perfectly with how members of the Choir themselves feel about singing and helps explain why Sissel, the Choir, and Orchestra make such a powerful combination. She added that it is important for her to have a story or a feeling drawn from her life experience in the songs that she sings. Her singing reflects “things that I believe in or emotions that I’ve had.” This, also, is a reflection of the feelings of the Choir. In describing her experience in the Conference Center she said, “The hall is something beyond imagination. [It is] enormous and amazing; and still, it’s intimate. It’s so strange – 21,000, 22,000 people out there – and, I don’t feel like I’m coming out there and I’m scared. It’s not that I’m coming out in a stadium where it is cold. I feel like there is a presence – a presence of God in that room. For me it is like singing in a church. And it is so warm!”
The Concert Theme In the northern reaches of Scandinavia, there are days when the winter sun shines for only a few hours, if at all. This makes light all the more precious to the inhabitants of the land, and so what better theme for our concert with Sissel than one of light? That special appreciation for light is reflected in a Scandinavian observance known as Lucia’s Day, or the Festival of Light. Celebrated on December 13, it ushers in the Christmas season. A centerpiece of the festival is the “Santa Lucia procession.” In the early morning hours, a young woman – dressed in white and wearing a crown of blazing candles – brings light to the dark winter. Each village chooses its own Lucia, who leads a procession of young girls and boys singing traditional carols. The highlight of the 2006 concert was a Santa Lucia procession of our own. On a stage elaborately decorated as a Scandinavian village, first one, and then a whole line of white-clad, candle-crowned young ladies stepped, circled and danced while Sissel and the Choir sang the heavenly “Vitae lux” (Light of Life).
This segued into “Lux aurumque” (Light and Gold), which accompanied a mist-shrouded ballet. A delicate new Mack Wilberg arrangement of “Silent Night” completed the set, leaving the heart filled with light and in a perfect disposition to receive the reading of the Christmas story by Sissel. Again one could sense that she was sharing things she believes in; no one has told the story with greater feeling.
Parting Thoughts When asked what she would take with her from this experience, Sissel said, “There is so much to bring home – the joy of singing, the joy of sharing, the music. But most of all the love of the people – the love of the people that I’ve met. I really feel like I’ve been blessed – really – that I’ve been given this opportunity to come here, and meet everybody, and sing. I was so overwhelmed by this love. I will bring that with me and I will carry it. I will also try to learn something from it. It is important!” As a Choir member, there is much more that I could say about this concert, but it’s best for you to see and hear for yourself. I have no doubt that it will touch you as it has touched me!
Broadcast Schedule “Christmas with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Featuring Sissel” (and the title omits “Orchestra at Temple Square” and “Bells on Temple Square” only in the interest of brevity) will air on station KUED, Channel 7 in the Salt Lake City area, as follows:
The following dates/times are for KUED’s HD channel:
The concert will air throughout the United States on local PBS stations. Check your local listings! And for those unable to see the broadcast, the DVD is available at: and the CD (“Spirit of the Season”) at: For a list of Radio stations click here or for Television stations click here. No Comments | Post or read comments FEATURES |
November 21, 2025
November 21, 2025
