Knickerbocker Theatre

Visiting Writers Series

<

Ticket Office

Upcoming Events

Christmas Vespers Tickets on Sale November 21!

Call or visit the ticket office in DeVos Fieldhouse on November 21 to reserve your spot at the Christmas Vespers Services. Services will be held December 5 at 4:30pm and 8:00pm, and on December 6 at 2:00 and 4:30pm. See the full press release for more details.

Press Release

Jazz Ensembles Concert
November 6, 7:30pm
Dimnent Memorial Chapel

The concert will feature the Contemporary Ensemble, the Mainstream Ensemble and the Jazz Arts Collective.

The Contemporary Ensemble features Brian Coyle, director of jazz studies, as coach; Kin Fong, alto; bassist Eric Dulmes; pianist Michael Reynolds; and drummer David Webster. The group will be performing Duke Ellington's "caravan" and Herbie Hancock's "Cantaloupe Island."

The Mainstream Ensemble features Rob Hodson as coach, pianist Larry Figueroa, guitarist Nate Roberts, bassist Zach Pedigo, and Stephen Hobson as drummer. The group will be performing Bobby Timmon's "Dat Dere," Hoagy Carmichael's "Skylark," and Adam Rogers's "Sight."

The final group of the evening, Jazz Arts Collective, is the premiere large jazz ensemble at Hope College. Comprised of a rhythm section and approximately seven horns, this select group performs compositions and arrangements from across the full spectrum of music.

Press Release

Nykerk Cup Competition
November 7, 7pm
Holland Civic Center

The event, one of a variety of activities scheduled during the college's Family Weekend, will feature more than 200 members of the freshman and sophomore classes competing in song, plays and oration. The participating classes this year are the freshman Class of '13 and the sophomore Class of '12.

The competition, first held on March 16, 1936, is named in honor of the originator of the program, John Nykerk, a professor, college dean and founder of the HopeCollege department of music. The event is continuously staged before a large audience.

The oration theme is "Echo..." The sophomore play is "Aladdin" while the freshmen will be performing "That's the Name Game." The sophomore song is "Grease Medley" and the freshmen have chosen "Footloose."

Press Release

Faculty Recital Featuring Gabe Southard
November 8, 3pm
Wichers Auditorium, Nykerk

The program will include "Histoire du Tango," by Astor Piazzolla; "Sonata for Flute and Piano," by Cesar Franck; "Fantasie," by Gabriel Faure; and "Fantasie Pastorale Hongroise," by Francois Doppler.

Assisting Southard will be pianists Adam Clark and Andrew Le, and guitarist David Martin.

Southard is an assistant professor of music and conducts the college's Wind Ensemble, and has been a member of the Hope faculty since 2007.  He completed his Doctorate of Musical Arts in conducting at Michigan State University. Prior to his residence at MSU, he served as Wind Symphony conductor and Flute Studio teacher at the University of Michigan-Flint, where he also taught orchestration, music appreciation, and advanced conducting.

Visiting Writers Series Featuring Susan Choi
November 12, 7pm
Knickerbocker Theatre

Susan Choi is a novelist who, according to Ron Charles of the Washington Post, "looks for essential American characters in the most peculiar places." Her second novel, Pulitzer Prize finalist "American Woman," is a fictionalized account of the Patty Hearst kidnapping, and her most recent book, "A Person of Interest," combines elements of the Unabomber case and the U.S. government's investigation of nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee in what Charles calls "one of the most remarkable novels to have emerged from our age of terror."

Choi will also be featured during a question-and-answer session on Thursday, Nov. 12, at 3 p.m. in the DeWitt Center Herrick Room.  Refreshments will be served during the Q&A.

Press Release
Visiting Writers Series Website

Hope Concert Series Featuring Sleeping at Last
November 13, 8pm
Knickerbocker Theatre

Sleeping at Last is to headline the night, drawing not only from the group's past successful albums "Ghosts" and "Keep No Score" (featuring the song "Quicksand" as seen on "Grey's Anatomy"), but also from the band's latest full-length album "Storyboards," released in September. "Relevant" magazine has said of the album, "'Storyboards' has depth and layered meaning - proof that the trio from Chicago is less interested in writing catchy music and more concerned with making great art."

Also performing will be Denison Witmer, who is a Philadelphia-based singer, songwriter and musical affiliate of Rosie Thomas and Sufjan Stevens; and Springfield, Mo., artist, Jeremy Larson, now touring with Sleeping at Last.

Press Release

Hope College Symphony Orchestra Concert
November 13, 7:30pm
Dimnent Memorial Chapel

The program will include Robert Schumann's "Overture to Hermann and Dorothea, Op. 136" and "Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54" featuring pianist Adam Clark. Closing the program will also be Robert Schumann's "Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 97" ("Rhenish").

Clark joined the Hope faculty as an assistant professor of music in 2008, and currently teaches courses in applied piano, keyboard skills and piano pedagogy. He earned his DMA in piano performance at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), while his bachelor's and master's degrees were completed at the University of California at Santa Barbara and the University of Texas at Austin respectively.

Press Release

Lecture on Translations of Japanese Epic
November 18, 4pm
Fried-Hemenway Auditorium, Martha Miller Center

Dr. Michael Watson, who is spending the fall semester at HopeCollege as the Meiji Gakuin Exchange Professor, will discuss the translation history of an epic Japanese narrative. Watson will present "'L'écho des vicissitudes humaines': The Tale of the Heike through its Translation History."

"The Tale of the Heike" ("Heike monogatari") is a narrative of epic length and style that gives a highly romanticised account of Japan's first great civil war of the 1180s. There are no less than three complete translations of the work in English, with a new one in preparation.

Watson's talk will focus on the famous opening of the work, looking at how French, English, German, Russian and Chinese translators have found different ways of conveying its special rhythm, style and content.

Press Release

Margaret Cogswell's "River Fugues" Exhibition
DePree Art Center

In the last five years, Cogswell has focused her faculties on exploring the ever-shifting banks and waters of American rivers - and produced a series of installations that are among the most original in contemporary art. The River Fugues use space, sound, video, and sculpture to explore the interaction between the great rivers of North America and post-industrial American culture.

The Exhibition runs through November 7.

Holland Area Arts Links