An organ concert featuring Hope College faculty members Huw Lewis and Linda Strouf
will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 25, at 7:30 p.m. in Dimnent Memorial Chapel, as the
final event in the community-wide, five-day Founder's Festival.
The public is invited. Admission is free.
Running Friday-Tuesday, Oct. 21-25, the festival has been scheduled in honor of the
October 1811 birth of the Rev. Albertus C. Van Raalte, who founded Holland in 1847.
The organ concert will feature work by Dutch musicians, with Lewis and Strouf presenting
a program that they previously performed in Ommen, Overijssel, the Netherlands, in
May.
Lewis, a professor of music, has taught at Hope since 1990. He performs nationally
and internationally on a regular basis, and has been featured at meetings and conventions
sponsored by many professional organizations, including the American Guild of Organists
and the Royal College of Organists. He was a featured recitalist at the 1987 International
Congress of Organists. Lewis's playing has been broadcast in America and in Great
Britain where he has made numerous recordings for the BBC. He has served on many competition
juries, most recently for the 2003 Dallas International Organ Competition. Lewis studied
at the Royal College of Music in London, at CambridgeUniversity, and at the University
of Michigan.
Strouf, an adjunct assistant professor of music, has been on the faculty of Hope College
since 1988, teaching courses in music theory, music history and piano, and is currently
teaching keyboard skills to music majors and minors and a First-Year Seminar. Strouf
is also the minister of music at the historic Third Reformed Church, a position she
has held for 16 years, where she plays the organ and directs three adult choirs and
oversees the youth music program of an additional three choirs. Strouf is also active
in the community, playing principal keyboard with the Holland Symphony Orchestra.
Dimnent Memorial Chapel is located at 277 College Ave., on College Avenue at 12th
Street.
Multiple events have been scheduled in Holland as well as in neighboring communities
in conjunction with the Founder's Festival, beginning with an opening reception complete
with birthday cake on Friday, Oct. 21, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Holland Area Arts
Council and including concerts, films and exhibitions; a play written just for the
bicentennial; puppet shows, storytelling and a "Klompen Derby" - miniature wooden
show car races; and the U.S. portion of an international conference that will continue
in the Netherlands the following month.
The conference "Albertus C. Van Raalte: Leader and Liaison" will take place at Hope
on Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 24 and 25, in Winants Auditorium of Graves Hall, and will
continue in Ommen, Overijssel, the Netherlands on Nov. 3-4. Organized by the college's
A.C. Van Raalte Institute, the conference will feature lectures by scholars from the
United States as well as the Netherlands.
Additional information about the Founder's Festival is available online at www.dutchheritagewestmichigan.com.
More information about the conference may be obtained online at www.hope.edu/vri or
by calling (616) 395-7678.