Hope College will inaugurate its new 800-seat Concert Hall with well over 100 different students performing during the 28th annual Musical Showcase on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 5-6, at 7:30 p.m. in the Jack H. Miller Center for Musical Arts.
Much of the 64,000-square-foot Jack H. Miller Center for Musical Arts opened for the start of the school year in August, with the 800-seat Concert Hall scheduled for completion for the Feb. 5-6 concert. Musical Showcase was previously held at DeVos Performance Hall in Grand Rapids, but has been moved to campus to inaugurate the new venue.
Hope College students take the stage for the fast-paced, musical spectacular, during which audience members hear everything from opera to jazz. The hardest part for those seeing the show is containing their enthusiasm, at least at first. In the tradition of the quick-moving musical event, audience members are asked to hold their applause until intermission and the end of the performance.
The concert unveils the gifts of all Hope College’s major musical groups, along with soloists, chamber groups and small ensembles.
The Concert Hall includes the college’s new Casavant Frères (Casavant Brothers) organ, which was custom-built for the space and will be featured in the program’s first performance as well as others. Following opening remarks from Hope College President John C. Knapp, organist David Heinze will perform “Moto Ostinato (Sunday Music),” by Petr Eben.
Soprano Gabrielle Barber, accompanied by pianist Janice Farber, will next perform “Ridente la Calma,” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The Jazz Arts Collective will then perform “The Good Man Delivered and the Best is Blessed,” by Bill Laurence.
The Women’s Chamber Choir, accompanied by pianist Sarah Bast, will sing “Les Raftsmen,” arranged by Donald Patriquin. Violinist Caleb Stuckey will play “Caprice in G Minor,” by Niccolo Paganini. Pianist Zhaojin Ziang will perform “Scotch Poem (Op. 31),” by Edward McDowell, while Francis Borne’s “Carmen Fantasie” will be played by flutist Stanna Dorn, accompanied by pianist Sarah Bast.
The String Quartet will perform “Opus 18, No. 4, IV,” by Ludwig van Beethoven, and organist Aaron Goodyke will perform “Prelude in G Major,” by Johann Sebastian Bach.
The Wind Ensemble will end the first half with “Toccata Marziale,” by Ralph Vaughn Williams.
Leonard Bernstein’s “Glitter and Be Gay” will be sung by soprano Kira Alsum, accompanied by pianist Janice Faber.
The Small Jazz Ensemble will perform “New York Attitude,” by Kenny Baron, and The Bassoon Trio will perform “Polka, Op. 4, VI,” by Julius Weissenborn. Organist John Deppe will perform “Scherzetto, Op. 31,” by Louis Vierne.
Violinist Madalyn Navis, accompanied by pianist Jennifer Wolfe, will perform Johannes Brahms’ “Hungarian Dance No. 5.”
The Saxophone Quartet and Djembe will play “Strange Humors,” by John Mackey. Soprano Sarah Krisch and mezzo soprano Macauley Wieland, accompanied by pianist Janice Faber, will perform “Pie Jesu (Requiem),” by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
The Woodwind Quartet will perform Malcom Arnold’s “Allegro con brio (Three Shanties for Wind Quintet,” and the Chapel Choir, accompanied by pianist Jennifer Wolfe, will perform “Amor de mi Alma,” by Z. Randall Stroope. Saxophonist Hillary Hunsberger, accompanied by pianist Sarah Bast, will perform “Concertino da Camera,” by Jacques Ibert.
To conclude the program, the Hope College Orchestra will perform the Overture from Mikhail Glinka’s “Ruslan Ludmila.”
Tickets for Musical Showcase are $10 each and can be purchased at the ticket office in the Events and Conferences Office located downtown in the Anderson-Werkman Financial Center at 100 E. Eighth St. The Events and Conferences Office is open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and can be called at (616) 395-7890.
The Jack H. Miller Center for Musical Arts is located at 221 Columbia Ave., between Ninth and 10th streets.