The Hope College Orchestra will preview its upcoming performance at Carnegie Hall with a concert at Hope on Friday, April 4, at 7 p.m. in the Concert Hall of the Jack H. Miller Center for Musical Arts.
The public is invited. Admission is free.
The April 4 event will feature “The Symphonic Story of Hope,” the program that the orchestra has been invited to perform at Carnegie Hall during the culminating Evening Showcase Concert of the 19th annual New York International Music Festival running Saturday–Wednesday, April 5–9.
“It is a great honor for our orchestra to be selected as one of the three showcase ensembles performing at Carnegie Hall,” said Sam Pang, director of Hope College Orchestra and an assistant professor of music instruction at the college.
The Hope College Orchestra is the college’s premier audition-based instrumental ensemble, and has approximately 85 members who include students majoring in music and students majoring in other disciplines. The students will be joined by three guest performers who are students at the Juilliard School.
The “Symphonic Story of Hope” reflects the themes and selections of the orchestra’s spring 2024 and fall 2024 concerts at Hope. The program will feature works arranged to reflect the journey from earthly concerns to salvation through Christ.
The orchestra will open its evening performance with the fourth movement of Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, which premiered at Carnegie Hall in 1893. Known also as “From the New World,” the work was inspired by the American landscape and American folk music during the composer’s time in the U.S.
The program will continue with “Liebesleid” (Love’s Sorrow), by Fritz Kreisler; “Theme to Schindler’s List,” by John Williams; a cello and oboe duet version of “Gabriel’s Oboe,” the main theme of the film “The Mission,” by Ennio Morricone; “O Magnum Mysterium” (O Great Mystery), by Morten Lauridsen, arranged for orchestra by Pang; the hymn “All the Way My Savior Leads Me,” by Fanny Crosby, arranged for orchestra by Pang; and the finale of Symphony No. 3 (“Organ Symphony”), by Camille Saint-Saёns.
The performance of “All the Way My Savior Leads Me” is being dedicated in memory of orchestra member Jennifer Kasunick, a Hope sophomore and violinist who died on Saturday, Jan. 11, of injuries sustained when she was struck by a train.
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.