Timmons Chapel holiday concert tradition continues
Thursday, December 1, 2016 2:00 AM
News
Pittsburg, KS
For most of the past half-century, the annual holiday concerts in Pittsburg State University’s Timmons Chapel have been a symbol that Christmas is just around the corner. The Department of Music will share this holiday gift with the community for the 48th year at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 7, and Friday, Dec. 9.
David Hurley, professor of music history and oboe at PSU, directs the concerts. This year’s program, he said, will include a variety of well-known holiday pieces, from Handel’s “Messiah” to “Silent Night.”
“We will have singers, a brass group, a clarinet group, bells and strings,” Hurley said. “There will also be one brief holiday reading.”
The music is performed by students, faculty and members of the community.
From their inception, the free holiday concerts have been a showcase for Timmons Chapel, a Gothic-style, all-faiths chapel completed in 1966 as a gift to the university from longtime benefactor Beth Spiva Timmons. The annual concerts began in 1968 and for many years, Timmons personally provided the greens and supervised the simple holiday decorations that have become part of the holiday tradition at PSU.
As always, there is no admission fee for the concerts, but seating in the chapel is limited. For more information, contact the PSU Department of Music at 620-235-4466.
About Timmons Chapel:
Designed by architect Richard N. Wakefield, the English gothic chapel's Ashler pattern stone walls are 18 inches thick. The Vermont slate roof weighs 80,000 pounds.
The chapel's bronze bells were cast in Asten, Holland. The chapel's five-rank Wicks pipe organ has 341 pipes that are concealed in the organ loft.
Since its construction, the chapel has been the site for thousands of weddings, which was one of the primary desires of the donor. That purpose for the building is reflected in the design throughout.
The chapel's altar, for example, is fashioned of nine wedding rings. The relief design on the chapel's bronze bells depicts the wedding of Canaan.
About Beth Spiva Timmons:
Born in Galena, Kan., in 1901, Beth Spiva Timmons was a long-time patron and benefactor of Pittsburg State University. One of her first acts of generosity to the university was her establishment of the Spiva Emergency Loan Fund for students in 1951. That fund eventually became the Spiva Scholarship Fund, one of the first scholarship funds established as part of the PSU Endowment Association. In 1985, she established the Timmons Trust Fund. Together, the two funds provide some of the largest scholarships awarded by the university. Beth Spiva Timmons died in June of 1985. In 1988, she was honored posthumously with the PSU Presidential Award of Merit.