The Hope College Chapel Choir, College Chorus and SPERA vocal ensembles will perform both separately and together during their final concert of the school year, presenting a program with the theme “Songs for Peace” on Saturday, April 20, at 3 p.m. in the Concert Hall of the Jack H. Miller Center for Musical Arts.
The public is invited. Admission is free.
Peter Kadeli is director of Chapel Choir and College Chorus, and Pamela Pierson is director of SPERA. The ensembles are accompanied by pianists Jane Bosko, Allison Shinnick Keep and Christina Krause.
Also performing with the choirs is faculty member Jennie Reyes as vocal soloist in Felix Mendelssohn’s “Hear My Prayer,” one of Mendelssohn’s most popular and widely known choral works; premiered in 1845.
The Chapel Choir will open with the Spiritual “Ev‘ry Time I Feel The Spirit.” The choir will also sing “Peace of Wild Things,” with text by poet Wendell Berry that explores humanity’s relationship with the earth, and “Notre Pere,” by Maurice Durufle, a sacred motet setting the Lord's Prayer in French.
SPERA’s works include a Syrian protest song against war, “Lao Rahal Soti,” sung in Arabic and the traditional spiritual, “This Little Light of Mine.”
The Chapel Choir and SPERA will perform “Samachti B’omrim Li,” a setting in Hebrew of verses from Psalm 122, and “O Love,” by Elaine Hagenberg.
“A Song of Peace” / ”Finlandia” by Sibelius will feature soloists from the College Chorus, and the three choirs singing together will finish with the spiritual “Music Down in My Soul.”
To inquire about accessibility or if you need accommodations to fully participate in the event, please email accommodations@hope.edu. Updates related to events are posted when available at hope.edu/calendar in the individual listings.
The Jack H. Miller Center for Musical Arts is located at 221 Columbia Ave., between Ninth and 10th streets.