Chapel Choir to Present Home Concert on April 4

HOLLAND - The Hope College Chapel Choir will present its annual home concert on Monday, April 4, at 7:30 p.m. at St. Francis de Sales Church, located on 13th Street at Maple Avenue.

The public is invited. Admission is free.

The Chapel Choir will perform the program created for its forthcoming European tour, presenting a mix of organ and choral works. Hope sophomore Richard Newman of Midlothian, Va., will be the lead organist, with solos by organist Sean Daenzer, a junior from Mount Clemens.

The program will include works by Benjamin Britten, Charles Wesley and Kenneth Leighton, as well as spiritual arrangements by composers such as Moses Hogan and Jester Hairston. Other works include a Romanian setting of the Lord's Prayer, "Tatal Nostru"; Jeffrey Rickard's "Gloria"; Randall Thompson's "Alleluia"; and a setting in Hebrew of Psalm 146 by Salamone Rossi.

The choir will be performing in France and the Netherlands in May. The choir's planned appearances in France include an evening performance in Caen on Thursday, May 12; a late afternoon performance in historic Chartres Cathedral on Friday, May 13; and participation in the Pentecost Sunday morning worship service followed by a short concert at the American Church in Paris on May 15.

In the Netherlands, the choir's plans include a performance at a school near Maastricht plus an evening concert with a local choir on Tuesday, May 17; an evening concert in the central Netherlands on Wednesday, May 18; and a midday performance as part of the regular concert series at historic St. Janskerk in Gouda on Thursday, May 19.

The tour will also provide sightseeing opportunities for the choir in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. The itinerary will include visits to the Normandy D-Day beaches, the palace and gardens of Versailles, the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Louvre Museum, Brugge and Brussels, and the Het Loo Royal Palace and Gardens, and a cruise of Amsterdam's canals. The Chapel Choir was organized in 1929 and began touring annually in 1953. In addition to touring extensively in the United States and Canada, the choir has made a European tour six times previously.

The 45 members are selected by audition. The choir is directed by Brad Richmond, director of choral activities and associate professor of music at Hope.

The Chapel Choir maintains an active local performance schedule. The group has also made numerous radio and television appearances, including the nationally televised "Hour of Power" from Garden Grove Church in California, and is featured in Hope's nationally broadcast Christmas Vespers program each December.

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