This December, the beloved annual “Christmas with The Tabernacle Choir” special returns to PBS. Tony® Award-nominated performer Megan Hilty and well-known film and television actor Neal McDonough join the iconic 500-person Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square in a soulful celebration of the season. McDonough and Hilty, who each share Irish heritage and traditions, join the Choir and Orchestra, trumpeters and bell ringers in delivering a deeply personal program that weaves together well-known holiday tunes, classic Christmas carols and hymns with some traditional Irish musical numbers.
Former Tabernacle Choir guest artist and Tony Award-winner, Brian Stokes Mitchell, is back to remember and relive twenty years of inspiring Christmas concerts. From opera, gospel, and pop singers to Broadway and cabaret stars; from Shakespearean actors and movie and television stars, the Choir’s guest artists provide, not just formidable talent, but a little something for everyone.
Andrew Unsworth is one of three full-time organists at the Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, where he participates in the daily recital series on the 206-rank Æolian-Skinner organ and accompanies the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square (formerly Mormon Tabernacle Choir) on its weekly radio and television broadcast, "Music and the Spoken Word." Dr. Unsworth was raised in Potsdam, New York, in a family of musicians. He received a Bachelor of Music degree in organ performance and pedagogy from Brigham Young University and master’s and doctoral degrees in historical performance practice from Duke University. Prior to his appointment on Temple Square, he served as organist and assistant director of music at the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City and as assistant professor of music history and organ at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. He has performed throughout the United States and Europe as a soloist and accompanist, including recitals at regional and national conventions of the Organ Historical Society and American Guild of Organists. His solo organ recording, French and German Masterworks, is available on the Raven label. Dr. Unsworth holds the Associateship certificate from the American Guild of Organists, which also awarded him the S. Lewis Elmer Award. He and his wife, Alison, are the parents of five children.