The 85th annual Christmas Vespers service held at Dimnent Memorial Chapel on the Hope College campus in early December, was recorded for television and radio and will be featured on multiple stations nationwide during the following broadcast times:
Broadcast-PBS Television:
WGVU-Grand Rapids will broadcast the 2025 concert on:
- December 19 at 9 p.m.
- December 24 at 9:30 p.m.
- December 25 at noon and 8 p.m.
Radio:
- WCHT-600 AM and 93.5 FM (Escanaba, Mich.). The concert will also air on the station's streaming service at www.radioresultsnetwork.com on Christmas Eve at noon.
- WTHS-89.9 FM (Hope College radio station)
- Christmas Eve at 8 p.m.
- Christmas Day at 8 a.m. and at 8 p.m.
- WHCB-91.5 FM (In NE Tennessee, SW Virginia, and parts of Kentucky and North Carolina)
- Christmas Eve at 2 a.m., 7:10 a.m., 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.
- December 28 at 5 a.m. and 5 p.m.
A photo gallery from the December 6 and 7 performances can be viewed on Hope’s photo gallery. This year’s audio program is also available on the college’s website, along with previous Vespers concerts from 1965-2024, at https://hopecollegemusic.bandcamp.com/.
About the Hope College Vespers
Christmas Vespers was first held on Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941. The timing, just hours after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, was coincidental, with the program having been planned earlier in the semester. The Christmas Vespers is offered through three services over a two-day period, selling out in less than 30 minutes when tickets go on sale in mid-November each year.
The program of Christmas carols and anthems is presented by the college’s esteemed Department of Music, featuring more than 200 performers across the college’s orchestra and four choirs, in historic Dimnent Memorial Chapel. Also among the instrumental music featured in the concert are the college’s historic Chancel organ (built in 1929 by the E.M. Skinner Organ Co., and renovated in 2005 and 2006) and Gallery organ (built in 1970 by Netherlands-based Pels and Van Leeuwen Organ Co.).