Psalm 95:1 “O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.”

Psalm 98:6 “With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the LORD, the King.”

Traditionally, the vespers concert or Sabbath vespers during the Laurelbrook graduation weekend is a final time for the music organizations to come together and perform the pieces with which the members have become familiar. After this concert, comes the video yearbook, a special visual review of the year’s activities.

The vespers concert during Graduation Weekend 2007 began with a song service led by members of the Carr family (Jennifer, Anna, and Katie together with their mother Wendy), Lisa Puffer accompanying. The opening song was “Come Thou Font of Every Blessing”. Anna had the opening prayer. Debbie Hess welcomed everyone and thanked the parents for letting her work with their students. She mentioned that the school requires participation in music organizations to enhance their learning abilities and that “music is the soul’s own speech.”

Then the Instrumental Ensemble under the direction of staff member Timmy King played several selections. Donna Kanna usually directs this group but had to be away to a close relative’s graduation ceremonies this weekend.

The Laurelbrook Choir followed with “O God Our Help” and “Bow the Knee”. The chorale, a smaller organization drawn from the choir, sang “Majesty and Glory of Your Name” and “It Was for Me”. Debbie Hess mentioned that when some of the music was selected no one realized how many students would lose relatives this school year. The words of the songs that followed addressed this directly. For their final numbers, the choir sang “The Blessed Hope” and “Ten Thousand Hallelujahs”. A girls’ group ended the sacred concert with “Jesus Priceless Treasure”. Chuck Hess, Laurelbrook’s president, ended the sacred part of the evening with prayer.

After an intermission, the focus shifted from sacred to secular music. The choir sang “The Star-Spangled Banner”. After the national anthem, the seniors sang “Goodbye”, accompanied by senior Alicia Zimmerman on the guitar.

By this time, it was dark enough that Chuck Hess was able to show the video yearbook. The video the juniors produced for the junior-senior banquet was also shown. The evening ended with the school song composed by Florence Burchard with Debbie Hess as the accompanist.

All the choral numbers were directed by Music Department Head Debbie Hess and accompanied by staff member Lisa Puffer.