Acclaimed Broadway singer and actress Lea Salonga and the equally world-renowned Utah, USA-based Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square wowed the full-house capacity audience at SM Mall of Asia (MOA) Arena with their praise and inspirational songs on February 27.
THE more than 400 members of The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square and Orchestra with Music Director Mack Wilberg during its world tour of “Hope” concert at SM MOA Arena on February 27.
“It’s like God absolutely exists. When you hear this kind of . when you experience it…it gets to a part of you that you can’t always explain,” Salonga described the Choir’s spiritual music in reply to BusinessMirror during the interview with print media at a hotel in Pasay City on February 26. Another Filipino singer-songwriter who was featured in the concert, Ysabelle Cuevas, sang “If You Believe” with Filipino youth.
The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra also performed before business owners, CEOs and government officials at a hotel in Taguig City on February 23, and at the University of Santo Tomas on February 25. “I don’t know if there are many artists who have had the opportunity to work more than one time with the Choir. So this is a big bonus to be able to do it again. And to be able to do it in my home country is very very special…. I think the warmth of the people will definitely be felt by everyone,” she added during the news conference on February 26.
“Nothing is instantaneous. Things do take time, and there are some things that take more time than others” she pointed out Leavitt, who heads the Choir with his wife Jacalyn, said its mission is “to help people feel a sense of peace, healing and a sense of hope.” Leavitt confirmed this: “It is very clear that we needed to be in the Philippines for all of those reasons, And we felt we are drawn here because we knew it is a place, where we would find friendship; we would find a sense of purpose.”For her part, Cuevas said she grew up watching the Tabernacle Choir, which “helped her faith grow.”