Hope College’s Great Performance Series (GPS) is returning for the 2024-25 season welcoming internationally acclaimed artists in music, theatre and dance.
The season will open with Bridgman|Packer Dance performing on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 27-28, at 7:30 p.m. in the Knickerbocker Theatre. Art Bridgman and Myrna Packer are acclaimed for their innovative integration of choreography and video technology that explodes the partnering form into a magically populated stage where image and reality collide. This performance is a full-length work, “Ghost Factory,” and will incorporate a lobby video art exhibit. This unique approach to a dance performance is “gorgeous, and deeply moving,” the Huffington Post has said.
The French quartet, Le Consort, will perform on Thursday, Oct. 17, at 7:30 p.m. in the Jack H. Miller Center for Musical Arts. This baroque chamber ensemble consists of four young musicians who interpret the trio sonata repertoire with enthusiasm, sincerity and modernity. Le Consort takes this genre, the quintessence of baroque chamber music, and interprets it with a personal, dynamic, and colorful language. “Brilliant throughout, daring, sensual, Le Consort delights us,” Diapason has said.
Three-time Grammy-winning jazz drummer Ulysses Owens Jr. will be joined by Generation Y on Friday, Nov. 15, at 7:30 p.m. in the Jack H. Miller Center for Musical Arts. Ulysses Owens Jr. covers a wide swath as a successful performer, producer and educator. His most recent venture is “A New Beat” with Generation Y. Jazziz Magazine voted it as one of “10 Albums You Need to Know in 2024” and it spent eight weeks at the top of the Jazz Week Radio Charts.
The second half of the series will open with Actors from the London Stage in “Hamlet” on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 31- Feb. 1, at 7:30 p.m. in the Knickerbocker Theatre. This great tragedy features Hamlet seeking to avenge his father’s death (as told by his ghost) while exploring timeless themes of reality, revenge and death. Five actors comprise the entire cast, switching characters while using minimal props. The Royal Gazette recognizes the immense talent brought to the stage, saying “It is astonishing to watch five actors playing 30 different roles give a complete and riveting performance.”
Next, GPS will bring together three incredible musicians on Thursday, March 27, at 7:30 p.m. in the Jack H. Miller Center for Musical Arts. Cellist Joshua Roman, violinist Tessa Lark and seven-time Grammy winner bassist Edgar Meyer are in a newly formed trio. This collaboration of three artistically like-minded performers, each carving out their own niche in American music, tours together for the first time in a program including Bach and a new Meyer work written specifically for this tour. These fresh interpretations of existing and new music will be combined with some fancy fiddling on violin, cello and bass. The New York Times has said “Mr. Meyer is not only a legitimate heir to this tradition but also a great energizing factor to the field. His versatility should be celebrated.”
The season will conclude with the legendary vocal music ensemble, Tallis Scholars, on Thursday, April 24, at 7:30 p.m. in the Jack H. Miller Center for Musical Arts. Through their recordings and concert performances, The Tallis Scholars have established themselves as the leading exponents of Renaissance sacred music throughout the world. Founder and director Peter Phillips has worked with the ensemble to create the purity and clarity of sound that he feels best serves the Renaissance repertoire. It is the resulting beauty of sound for which The Tallis Scholars have become so widely renowned. This group is not to be missed, receiving recognition from The New York Times as “The rock stars of Renaissance vocal music.”
Season subscriptions covering all six events are now available. Subscriptions are $135 for regular admission, and $115 for senior citizens or Hope faculty and staff, a savings of more than 20% off the individual ticket prices. In addition, securing a season subscription before individual tickets go on sale provides priority choices in seating. Tickets for individual performances go on sale on Monday, Aug. 19, and are $29 for regular admission, $25 for senior citizens and Hope faculty and staff, and $15 for children 18 and under.
Season subscriptions and tickets are available at the Events and Conferences office located downtown in the Anderson-Werkman Financial Center (100 E. Eighth St.). The office is open for ticket sales on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and can be called at 616-395-7890.
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.
More information on the artists, including videos, is available at hope.edu/gps