The Echoing Vault, featuring Illumine, American Guild of Organists, and MHC Glee Club

The Echoing Vault

Illumine Vocal Arts Ensemble, American Guild of Organists, and Mount Holyoke College Glee Club

Illumine Vocal Arts Ensemble, in collaboration with the American Guild of Organists and the Mount Holyoke Glee Club, will present “The Echoing Vault,” a concert highlighting choral works with organ accompaniment and works for solo organ, on November 1st , 2026, at 2:00 pm at Abbey Chapel, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley Massachusetts. The program ranges in style from the Baroque to the modern to showcase the power and beauty of human voices combined with the grandest of all voiced instruments.

The concert will open and close with pieces from Herbert Howells’s “Collegium Regale,” music he composed for King’s College Chapel, where he served as organist. Other works include a movement from Louis Vierne’s “Messe solennelle,” which is scored for choir and two organs, taking advantage of both of Abbey Chapel’s instruments; James Macmillan’s “Cantos Sagrados,” a dramatic composition weaving together biblical allusions and poems about colonization and political violence in Latin America; David Lang’s “Where You Go,” an interpretation of the Book of Ruth; and Edgar Bainton’s soaring anthem of joy and hope, “And I Saw a New Heaven.”

Abbey Chapel is unusual in possessing two very different organs. In the rear balcony sits the Fisk Opus 84, a historically-informed instrument blending qualities of Italian Renaissance and German Baroque tonal traditions. Though built in 1985, it deliberately foregoes certain technical aspects of modern organs to produce a more transparent and expressive sound. The Skinner organ at the front of the sanctuary, on the other hand, commands the “timber-rattling” power associated with modern instruments.

The organists for this concert will be Larry Schipull, Professor of Music Emeritus and long-time organist for Mt. Holyoke College; and Noah Horn, an accomplished choral conductor and tenor who locally directs the Boston-based Cantata Singers and serves as Music Director at Grace Church in Amherst. He holds a Master of Music in organ performance from Yale University.

The choirs are conducted by Arianne Abela (Illumine), who directs the choral program at Amherst College, and Colin Britt (Mt. Holyoke Glee Club), who directs the choral program at Mt. Holyoke.

Tickets for the performance are available on a sliding scale at here, and will also be for sale at the door.