Tickets for Christmas Vespers Sold Beginning Nov. 15
Tickets for the popular annual Hope College Christmas Vespers services, a, 81-year tradition, will be sold to the public beginning on Monday, Nov. 15, at the Events and Conferences Office in the Anderson-Werkman Financial Center.
Christmas Vespers will be presented on Saturday, Dec. 4, at 4:30 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 5, at 3 p.m. in Dimnent Memorial Chapel.
While four services have been offered in the past, the college is presenting two services to reduce the demand placed on students during the weekend, which immediately precedes semester examinations, and the approach of music juries.
The program of Christmas carols and anthems is presented by the college’s Department of Music and features more than 200 performers in historic Dimnent Memorial Chapel. The services feature a variety of Hope instrumental and vocal groups as well as the college’s historic Skinner organ. The Chapel Choir will premiere a piece composed for this year’s Vespers service by Dr. Benjamin Krause, assistant professor of music, with text written by Dr. Pablo Peschiera, associate professor of English and department chair.
Christmas Vespers was first held on Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941. The timing, Pearl Harbor Day, was coincidental, with the program having been planned earlier in the semester. The first service included performances by multiple ensembles, as well as an organ soloist and an organ and piano duet, and ended with the Chapel Choir singing the “Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s “Messiah.”
Audience members who need assistance to fully enjoy any event at Hope are encouraged to contact the college’s Events and Conferences Office by emailing events@hope.edu or calling 616-395-7222 on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Updates related to events are posted when available in the individual listings at hope.edu/calendar
Due to the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic, Hope is currently requiring that masks be worn by all individuals while indoors on campus unless in their living space or alone in their work space.
Tickets are $10 each and will be available at the Events and Conferences Office, which is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The office can be called at 616-395-7890. Tickets will not be sold at the services and the services will not be livestreamed. However, WGVU is again recording the services and they will be aired on participating PBS stations later in the month.
The Anderson-Werkman Financial Center is located in downtown Holland at 100 E. 8th St., between College and Columbia avenues. Dimnent Memorial Chapel is located at 277 College Ave., at the corner of College Avenue and 12th Street.