2024 Vespers Celebrate Past and Present of NMH Holiday Tradition

On Dec. 8, Northfield Mount Hermon welcomed students, staff, and alumni to its snow-covered campus for the annual Vespers program. Attendees gathered in Memorial Chapel, amid poinsettias and candlelight, to bid goodbye to the fall semester, welcome the coming winter holiday season, and share a moment of respite and hope in song, music, and words. 

“This year marks our 116th Vespers concert,” Head of School Brian Hargrove said in his opening remarks. “At Northfield Mount Hermon, we embrace our tradition as the singing school. We lean into our education for the head, heart, and hand, and today we will all be the beneficiaries of the tremendous work of our student choristers and instrumentalists.”

The performance featured combinations of the school’s choral groups and the Chamber Orchestra. They performed a potpourri of classic Christmas carols and hymns from across time and the world, interspersed with prayers from a variety of religious faiths centered around the concept of peace.

“Each of the musical pieces and the four readings this evening lift up a common vision for humanity,” said NMH chaplain, the Rev. Lee-Ellen Strawn, in her closing reflections. “It is a compassionate invitation that says come as you are; you have all that is needed to be shepherds of peace.”

Choral music teacher Alexandra Ludwig said that the music chosen for this year’s performance echoes the connective role that Vespers plays between generations. 

“Sort of serendipitously, we're doing a lot of pieces on this program that are based in Gregorian chant, super-ancient melodies that have made their way into modern compositions,” Ludwig said. “So it's really like a hand-holding across centuries of music, bringing the past into the present.”

The tradition of Vespers is believed to date back to at least 1909, though physical archival records only exist from 1911 onward, according to NMH archivist Peter Weis ’78. 

Separate concerts were held at the Northfield and Mount Hermon campuses until 2002, when Vespers was consolidated into one program in Memorial Chapel. The tradition of performing off campus began in 1962, with the NMH singing groups and orchestra traveling to either New York or Boston each year since. This year, NMH’s off-campus Vespers program will be held in the Emmanuel Church in Boston on Tuesday, Dec. 17, at 7 pm.

Planning for this year’s Vespers began in June, Ludwig said, when she and Orchestra Director Steven Bathory-Peeler met to select the music. This list was pared down once students arrived in the fall and the teachers had a chance to gauge their skill levels and proclivities. By October, the performance list was solidified, and the participating groups began practice in earnest.

Traditionally, NMH Vespers has featured the Select Treble Ensemble and Northfield Mount Hermon Singers, as well as the Concert Choir and the Chamber Orchestra. This year’s Vespers performance also included several drummers from the World Music Ensemble, as well as senior Fiona Cutchins ’25 on bassoon.

For vocalists in their senior year, Vespers offers a kind of culmination to their hard work and achievements within the NMH singing community. Keona Burch ’25, a member of the Select Treble Choir, has participated in every Vespers performance since arriving at the school as a 9th-grader. 

“Vespers has been a cornerstone of my NMH experience,” said Burch. “What appeals to me most is the culture of Vespers among the choir – I remember as we rehearsed for my first Vespers, all the seniors described their magical experiences with the concert, and it was so nice to be brought into that community before I'd even performed. I hope that's something that will continue to be passed down.”

Burch was chosen to sing the descant solo in the famed German carol “Stille Nacht” for the Dec. 8 afternoon program.

“Since it closes out the concert, that solo is pretty iconic among returning choir members,” said Burch. “It's very surreal to realize that I've been 'handed the torch,' in a sense. I can't believe that this will be my last Vespers, and it’s all the more special to feel like I'm honoring all the singers that have led me.”

That sense of community connection and magic-making across time is what makes Vespers the enduring tradition that it is, said Ludwig.

“In a school like this, the only things that are actually constant are the traditions,” she noted. “All of the people move through here like a river: The students go a little bit faster; the faculty are a little in the slower eddies. But eventually all the living beings here move through it, and the land, the buildings, and the traditions are what’s left. We all get to contribute to it while we're here. For students to realize this is their little moment to be in touch with those pillars can be really special.”

Photos by Matthew Cavanaugh. See more photos of Vespers 2024 in Flickr.