PASAY CITY, Philippines — Voices filled the The SM Mall of Asia Arena on Tuesday, Feb. 27 — the combined voices of The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square with the music of the Orchestra at Temple Square, the soaring vocals of Broadway singer and actress Lea Salonga, also those of singer Ysabella Cuevas and of TV personalities and concert hosts Suzi Entrata-Abrera and Paolo Abrera.
Also filling the arena were the applause, cheers and singing of nearly 10,000 people — many who were hearing the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra live and in-person for the first time. They cheered when the choir and orchestra sang two Filipino songs — “Hawak Kamay”(or “Holding Hands”) during the program and “Bahay Kubo,” a Filipino folk song, as an encore. And sang “Bahay Kubo” back to the choir at the end, cheering and waving as the choir and orchestra left the stage.
The all-volunteer Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square were performing in the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City in metro Manilla as part of the multiyear, multicity tour to share hope. In the Philippines, it’s the “Himig ng Pag-asa” tour or “melody of hope” tour.
Jose Manuel Romualdez, ambassador from the Philippines to the U.S., said after the concert as people were still in the arena cheering on the choir that “as you see very well, Filipinos love the Tabernacle Choir” and the hope the musicians shared.
A welcome was offered by Elder Carlos G. Revillo Jr., a General Authority Seventy and counselor in the Philippines Area presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the choir and orchestra’s sponsoring organization. Also in attendance were the rest of the Church’s Philippines Area presidency — Elder Steven R. Bangerter, area president, and counselors Elder Yoon Hwan Choi, all General Authority Seventies — and their wives.
This stop of the choir and orchestra’s “Hope” tour is their debut visit to the Philippines. The choir and orchestra previously performed a sacred music concert at the University of Santo Tomas and for a group of invited guests at the Shangri-la Hotel: the Fort. Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of The Twelve Apostles and his wife, Sister Kathy Andersen, attended those two concerts and spoke in the choir and orchestra’s sacrament meeting as they completed a nine-day ministry in the country.
The choir performs again in the SM Mall of Asia Arena on Wednesday, Feb. 28, at 8 p.m., Philippine time, and it will be livestreamed on the choir’s YouTube channel.
The Philippines is the second stop on the multicity, multiyear “Hope” tour. Rhe choir and orchestra’s first stop was in Mexico last year. Choir officials announced on Wednesday, Feb. 21, that the fall tour Sept. 5-12 will be to Florida and Georgia in the southeastern United States.
Concert at the SM Mall of Asia Arena: ‘You have a Filipino heart’
Salonga sang the tender song “The Story Goes On,” from “Baby,” sharing about the feelings of learning she would have a child and feeling that baby move inside her.
“No work or accomplishment means more to me than being a mother,” Salonga said.
Salonga is a Broadway singer-actress and “Disney Legend” for her performances as the singing voices of Princess Jasmine in “Aladdin”and Fa Mulan in “Mulan” and Mulan II,” and she sang with the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra during the 2022 Christmas concert “Season of Light,” which was broadcast on Christmas Eve 2023 in the Philippines.
“I missed you all, and it’s so great to have you in the Philippines,” Salonga said to the choir and orchestra.
She then asked a question she asks at concerts around the world: “Who here is Filipino?” She was greeted by cheers.
She sang “Hahanapin Ko,” (roughly translated as “I’ll Look for It”) arranged by her brother Gerard Salonga. “It captures the feeling of every Filipino who leaves the motherland. It’s how I feel whenever I leave the country for performing opportunities,” she said. “There’s always a little part of our hearts that remains here at home.”
Cuevas, a YouTube star joined by 50 youth and young adults from the metro Manilla area, sang and danced to the upbeat “If You Believe” from the 2021 youth album. As the audience recognized it, they cheered and clapped.
Six of the youth — Celine Alveona Marcos, Stephen Bamba, Keon Serrano, Janah Molina, Brio Divinagracia and Xia Vigor — narrated the biblical stories of Jesus Christ calming the waves and walking on water and also testified of the Savior and how faith can help navigate life’s storms. As the story unfolded, the choir sang associate director Ryan Murphy’s arrangement of “Hawak Kamay.”
“People who know us — and people who know our Filipino hearts — they will proudly tell you we’re not afraid of the storm,” said Marcos.
The audience members turned the lights on their phones and waved them twice during the story — the first impromptu, the second at the invitation of the narrators as an expression of their faith.
“You have a Filipino heart — a heart of faith, hope and love,” said Molina.
Hosts Suzi Entrata-Abrera and Paolo Abrera shared their experiences at the choir and orchestra’s 2023 Christmas concert and being able to go behind-the-scenes in the Conference Center.
“We expected the concert to be wonderful,” Paolo Abrera said. “We were completely unprepared for the experience that we had. It was incredible.”
They had a lively banter as they introduced each of the songs of hope. “Our Filipino spirit goes out to the world in so many ways,” Paolo said.
The choir and orchestra began with hymns of praise with the boisterous and bell-ringing “Alleluia Fanfare” combined with “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty,” then “In Hymns of Praise” and “Awake and Arise, All Ye Children of Light,” all arranged by conductor Mack Wilberg.
Next were two “Alleluias” — “Alleluia” with a meditative, almost spiritual chant-like melody was followed by the soaring “Alleluia, from Psalm 150,” with seemingly disjointed individual parts building before coming together to fill the space with music.
The choir and orchestra performed the celebratory “¡Ah, El Novio No Quere Dinero!” a Sephardic wedding song, sung in Medino, an ancient Spanish Hebrew language, and the hand-clapping Nigerian carol “Betelehemu,” sung in Yoruba. The audience cheered as the choir stepped back and forth in sync.
Next were a trio of songs of hope from the American songbook: the upbeat “Music Everywhere,” with music by assistant conductor Ryan Murphy and “The Pilgrim Song” and Wilberg’s arrangement of “Cindy.”
After Salonga’s songs, the orchestra then played the dancing and playful “Le Bal” from “Jeux d’enfants” or “Child’s Games.”
Suzi Entrata-Abrera said “All of the fun, the energy, the hope of that music reminded me of our own kids, then it reminded me that they’re not kids anymore. They are taller than me.”
After Cuevas and the Filipino youth peformed, Entrata-Abrera and Abrera recognized Leo Marcelo, a tenor who is a native Filipino, and dozens of choir and orchestra members with a connection to the Philippines.
Sundae Mae Indino and Ronald Baa, two of the choir’s global participants who auditioned with the choir and flew in to sing with them at general conference last year, joined for two hymns of hope — “Let Us All Press On” and “The Spirit of God.”
With a standing ovation from the audience, the choir and orchestra launched into the signature “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” followed by “Bahay Kubo” and then singing “God Be With You Till We Meet Again” to applause and cheers from the audience.
The 323-voice choir and 68 musicians in orchestra were framed by singkaban bamboo decorative arches shaped like bursting suns, made of traditional materials like rattan, capiz and flowers, as a screen behind them showed video and images to compliment the music.
The men of the choir and orchestra traded their white shirts and ties for traditional long-sleeved Filipino barongs embroidered with the choir’s logo, three stars for the country’s three largest islands and three rays of the Philippines sun. The women wore ponchos over their dresses that were embroidered with the sampaguita, the country’s national flower.
‘Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity’ to see the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra in-person
The Bondad and Guerra families from Daugupan, Philippines, on the northwest part of the island, left early Tuesday, to make the four-hour drive to metro Manila.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Marisol Bondad, of the Daugupan 7th Ward in the Daugupan Philippines Stake. She, her husband and their three children were some of the many who waited in the SM Mall of Asia since the early afternoon as they waited for doors to open. Seating was by general admission and they wanted to get as close as possible.
Daugupan Philippines Stake President Gerry Guerra, who came with his wife, Charmaine, and five of their children said the choir and orchestra “will be a great blessing to the Philippines. The Spirit is going to be so strong in the arena.”
Sharayzah Guerra, 21, who came with her parents and four siblings, said that “We love listening to music and watching the choir.”
After the concert, audience members didn’t seem to want to leave as choir and orchestra members took pictures and visited with them.
“For me, I think it’s probably a once-in-a-lifetime event, especially here in the Philippines,” said Arlyne Revillo, of Pasay in metro Manila, who came with 16 family members to the concert. She adjusted her work schedule to come. Hearing the choir in-person gave her goosebumps.
She likes hearing the choir and orchestra perform “The Spirit of God” and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” but hearing it live and in-person “just made a big difference in terms of the whole meaning of it.”
Her daughter, 17-year-old Trisha Revillo, said it’s the feelings of the Spirit hearing the choir perform that makes it so different than from other choirs. They were also excited to see the orchestra in-person.
Trisha liked hearing “Bahay Kubo.” “I loved hearing them sing our language, and they pronounced it really nicely — it’s close to how we sing it.”
Friends Crisey Flores, Jessica Seraspe and Zita Zamut traveled together for three hours from San Mateo Rizal. The concert for them was “amazing” and “beautiful.”
“I can’t express how beautiful it is,” Flores said.
They sang along with the choir on “Bahay Kubo” and loved hearing the choir sing Filipino songs.
“Because that’s the Filipino spirit. If you hear somebody singing your song, I feel that they belong to us also,” Seraspe said.
The difference of hearing the choir sing online or at general conference or in-person was the energy and seeing the conductors lead, they said.
Jaden Consignad, 18, of Binangoman, Rizal, on the southern part of the Luzon island, said seeing them in-person, she felt stronger emotions than listening to them on online.
“It is a wonderful night, and I will cherish it so much,” she said.
