鶹ý’s Great Performance Series (GPS) returns for the 2026-27 season with six performances featuring internationally acclaimed artists in dance, chamber music, jazz, theater and vocal performance. GPS continues its 50+ years of bringing internationally acclaimed artists who perform and work with our students.

Great Performers Series
Season subscriptions and tickets are available in three different ways:

  • Online at hope.edu/tickets
  • In person at the Events and Conferences Office located in the Anderson-Werkman Financial Center (100 E. Eighth St. in Holland)
  • Or by calling the ticket office at 616-395-7890

Thursday & Friday, Sept. 17 & 18, 7:30 p.m. at Knickerbocker Theatre
South Chicago Dance Theatre
The season opens with , a multicultural organization fusing classical and contemporary dance styles while preserving historic dance work. The company is led by founder, resident choreographer and director of vision and strategy Kia S. Smith, who was named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” for 2024. The Chicago Tribune has described the company as “the next big thing to hit Chicago’s dance scene.” Notable performances include a sold-out Harris Theater for Music and Dance debut in 2022, the premiere of “Memoirs of Jazz in the Alley,” a debut at the Auditorium Theatre of Chicago in 2023, a Jacob’s Pillow debut in 2024, and international touring in Vietnam, South Korea, the Netherlands and South America. 

Thursday, Oct. 22, 7:30 p.m. at Jack H. Miller Center
Akropolis Reed Quintet
The Grammy Award-winning brings its innovative chamber music to 鶹ý after becoming the first reed quintet to win a Grammy Award. Founded in 2009, the ensemble has appeared on the Billboard Classical Charts with each of its last three albums, including a No. 2 debut in April 2024. Winner of seven national chamber music prizes, including the 2014 Fischoff Gold Medal, the quintet is known for performing “works that brilliantly exploit their unique instrumentation,” according to Gramophone. And BBC Music Magazine describes Akropolis as “a sonically daring ensemble who specializes in performing new works with charisma and integrity.”

Friday, Nov. 13, 7:30 p.m. at Jack H. Miller Center
Laura Anglade
is a Brooklyn-based jazz vocalist born in the south of France and shaped by life in the United States and Canada. Her 2022 release “Venez Donc Chez Moi” earned a Juno Award nomination, and she received the Prix Opus for Jazz Concert of the Year in 2023. Her 2025 album “Get Out of Town” has led to appearances on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and “The Kelly Clarkson Show.” Jazziz wrote that Anglade “continues the grand tradition of acting the song, bringing fresh vitality to Songbook standards and some unfairly obscure gems.”

Thursday, Jan. 21, 7:30 p.m. at Jack H. Miller Center
Camerata Nordica Octet
Founded in 1974, has built an international reputation for its high-energy performance style, captivating audiences by performing standing up and often entirely from memory. The ensemble is drawn from the orchestra’s principal players. The group’s artistry has earned three Grammy Award nominations. The Washington Post called Camerata Nordica “a memorable evening.”

Thursday & Friday, April 8-9, 7:30 p.m. at Knickerbocker Theatre
Actors from the London Stage in King Lear
, founded by Sir Patrick Stewart returns to 鶹ý with a production of William Shakespeare’s King Lear. During their weeklong residency at 鶹ý, the troupe will visit classrooms, lead workshops and engage in conversations with students while sharing their passion for theatre-making and Shakespeare. The Royal Gazette wrote, “It is astonishing to watch five actors playing 30 different roles give a complete and riveting performance.”

Tuesday, April 21, 7:30 p.m. at Jack H. Miller Center
Chanticleer
The season concludes with , the multi-Grammy-winning “orchestra of voices” renowned for its virtuosity and genre-spanning repertoire. Founded in San Francisco in 1978, the ensemble performs music ranging from Renaissance polyphony to classical, gospel, jazz and popular styles. The Boston Globe praised the group as “breathtaking in its accuracy of intonation, purity of blend, of color and swagger of style,” while the San Francisco Chronicle called Chanticleer “one of the world's best.”

To inquire about accessibility or 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