The Hope College Gospel Choir will present its annual final spring concerts on Sunday, April 17, at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. in Dimnent Memorial Chapel.
Tickets are $5 each, and may be purchased at the college's Campus Ministries Office, which is located at 129 E. 10th St. and open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets may also be purchased online. Any remaining tickets will also be available at the door.
The events will feature special guest vocalist Gezelle Myers of Midland. Additional participants will also include Sacred Dance and the Rev. Trygve Johnson, who is the Hinga-Boersma Dean of the Chapel at Hope.
The Hope College Gospel Choir started in 1970 as an extension of the Black Student Coalition. In 1992, the choir was formally organized, under the direction of Darnisha Taylor and Vanessa Allen. The growing choir became a ministry of the college's Campus Ministries program in 1997. The choir's members come from different backgrounds, cultures and denominational experiences. The members are selected by audition.
The choir is now under the direction of Christopher J. Kingdom-Grier, a native of Idlewild, where he provided music ministry for five diverse denominations during his 20 years of residence. After attending Calvin College and being a student conductor of the Campus Choir under the direction of Howard Slenk, he obtained his BA in visual and performing arts with a concentration in music from Shaw University in Raleigh, N.C. Kingdom-Grier went on to Ohio University where he received the Master of Educational Leadership with a concentration in higher education administration while simultaneously working with the Office of Multicultural Affairs.
Immediately upon completion of the M.Ed., he filled a position at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., as the assistant director of the Black Cultural Center. Following these experiences, Kingdom-Grier taught at his alma mater, Baldwin High School, and is currently the Minister of Fine Arts at Maple Avenue Ministries, a union church of the Christian Reformed Church and the Reformed Church in America, in Holland.
Additional information about the concert may be obtained by calling the Campus Ministries Office at 616.395.7145, or emailing gospelchoir@hope.edu.