Timmons Chapel rings with holiday sounds

Sounds of the season will fill the air next week as the Pittsburg State University Department of Music performs two winter concerts for the community at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday evenings, Dec. 5 and 7.

The concerts will be held at Timmons Chapel on the PSU campus – a beautiful sanctuary that has become an invaluable site for meditation, prayer and solace for the PSU community over the past 41 years.

Timmons Chapel was dedicated in 1966 after Bess Spiva Timmons, a generous PSU benefactor, donated the project to the university. Timmons, who was posthumously awarded the PSU Presidential Award of Merit in 1988 one year after her death, took a personal interest in the planning and construction of the chapel, working with architect Richard N. Wakefield to design the structure in the Gothic style.

The chapel walls are built in the Ashler pattern of masonry and are 18 inches thick. The chapel’s 80,000 pound roof is made of Vermont slate. The bronze bells for the chapel were cast in The Netherlands, and were a gift from Mrs. Timmons’ children.

On the interior, the chapel’s alter rail is fashioned of wedding rings, a design that is repeated in the chapel gates. This feature – and the character of the chapel itself – has made it a perfect location for weddings over the years. In fact, since 1966, more than 1,500 weddings have been performed there, including several ceremonies that are planned for this December. During these ceremonies and various special events, music is carried through the room by a five-rank, Wicks pipe organ, which was also a gift from Mrs. Timmons’ children. The organ’s 341 pipes are concealed in the organ loft.

Although the organ is used throughout the year, the focus of this season’s concerts will be brass and bells. While decorating the chapel with holiday décor over the next several days, faculty members and students within the Department of Music are also preparing to perform a mix of classical and Christmas music. The concerts will include vocal solos, faculty brass groups, student music groups, and the “Bells of Balkans” led by former faculty member Carol Ann Martin.

The concerts are free and open to the public. For more information, contact David Hurley at 620-235-4479.

---Pitt State---