The Hope College Chapel Choir, Chamber Orchestra and Jazz Arts Collective will each be touring during the college’s spring break later this month.
The Chapel Choir will be touring Missouri, Illinois and Indiana, on Friday-Wednesday,
March 17-22. The group will perform at Central Presbyterian Church in Clayton, Missouri,
on Friday, March 17, at 7 p.m.; at Elmhurst Christian Reformed Church in Elmhurst,
Illinois, on Sunday, March 19, at 7:30 p.m.; at First United Methodist Church at The
Chicago Temple, on Monday, March 20, at 7 p.m.; at Westminster Presbyterian Church
in Springfield, Illinois, on Tuesday, March 21, at 7 p.m.; and at Pilgrim Lutheran
Church in Carmel, Indiana, on Wednesday, March 22, at 7:30 p.m.
In advance of the tour, the choir also performed at Mason First United Methodist Church in Mason on Sunday, March 5, and will perform at Memorial Presbyterian Church in Midland on Sunday, March 12, at 6 p.m. In addition, the choir will present its annual post-tour Home Concert on Friday, March 31, at 7:30 p.m. in the Concert Hall of the Jack H. Miller Center for Musical Arts.
The Chamber Orchestra and Jazz Arts Collective will be touring Illinois, Nebraska
and Colorado together on Thursday-Wednesday, March 16-22. The two ensembles will
perform at First Reformed Church in South Holland, Illinois, on Thursday, March 16;
at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, Nebraska, on Friday, March 17; at Saint
Paul Lutheran and Roman Catholic Community of Faith in Denver, Colorado, on Sunday,
March 19, at 4 p.m.; and at Arvada West High School in Arvada, Colorado, on Monday,
March 20, at 6 p.m.
The Chamber Orchestra and Jazz Arts Collective will present a pre-tour concert on Wednesday, March 15, at 7:30 p.m. in the Concert Hall of the Jack H. Miller Center for Musical Arts. In addition, the Jazz Arts Collective will perform with Hope jazz combos on Wednesday, April 12, at 7:30 p.m. in the John and Dede Howard Recital Hall of the Jack H. Miller Center for Musical Arts, and the college’s Orchestra and combined choirs will perform on Tuesday, April 25, at 7:30 p.m. in the Concert Hall of the Jack H. Miller Center for Musical Arts.
The Chapel Choir, directed by Dr. Brad Richmond, is Hope’s premier choral ensemble. Comprised of auditioned choristers, the choir has toured extensively throughout the United States and Canada, has traveled to Europe on six occasions, and toured South Africa in 2009. Over the years the choir has received numerous invitations to sing at choral conferences and prestigious churches around the country. The choir is also featured in Hope College’s long-standing Christmas Vespers, which is broadcast throughout the United States on PBS.
The Hope College Chamber Orchestra is directed by Dr. Christopher Fashun. The Chamber
Orchestra is the touring chamber orchestra at Hope College and is selected each year
from members of the Hope College Orchestra. The Chamber Orchestra has made numerous
radio and television appearances and its performances for Hope College’s Vespers are
featured semi-annually on PBS affiliates in Michigan and beyond. It presents a diverse
array of family and youth concerts in addition to its series of formal concerts.
The Jazz Arts Collective, directed by Dr. Brian Coyle, is the college’s premier large jazz ensemble. The collective places a creative focus on ensemble communication and improvisation. Comprised of a rhythm section and flexible wind/string instrumentation, the select group performs compositions and arrangements from across the full spectrum of music. The collective’s repertoire ranges from the great historical jazz composers such as Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus, to works by modern jazz masters like Vince Mendoza, Jim McNeely and John Hollenbeck. The Jazz Arts Collective frequently performs commissions, works by emerging young composers and originals by Hope College faculty and students. The ensemble also collectively reinterprets and re-imagines the music from the 20th- and 21st-century classical and popular music repertoire.