Thursday, Jul 30, 2015
The Westminster Symphonic Choir will continue its tradition of performing choral/orchestral masterworks with some of the world’s leading orchestras during the 2015-2016 season.
The ensemble’s first concert will be a rare performance at home, when it presents a concert in the Princeton University Chapel on Wednesday, October 7 at 7:30 p.m. Joe Miller will conduct the 175-voice ensemble in a performance of James MacMillan’s powerful Cantos Sagrados and Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem. They will be joined by Princeton University organist Eric Plutz. Learn more at www.rider.edu/arts.
In November, the Choir will perform Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 several times. November 5 through 8, it will collaborate with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and conductor Jacques Lacombe. Performances at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center will be Thursday, November 5 at 1:30 p.m.; Friday, November 6 at 8 p.m; and Sunday, November 8 at 3 p.m. On Saturday, November 7, at 8 p.m., they will perform at the State Theatre in New Brunswick. Learn more at www.njsymphony.org.
The Choir will perform Beethoven’s masterwork with the Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Sir Simon Rattle at Carnegie Hall on Saturday, November 21, 8 p.m. Learn more at www.carnegiehall.org
In December, the Choir will perform Handel’s Messiah with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Jane Glover at Avery Fisher Hall in New York’s Lincoln Center. Performances will be Tuesday, December 15 at 7:30 p.m.; Wednesday, December 16 at 7:30 p.m.; Thursday, December 17 at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, December 18 at 11 a.m.; and Saturday, December 19, 7:30 p.m. Learn more at www.nyphil.org.
In March, the Symphonic Choir will perform Gustav Mahler’s massive Symphony No. 8 “Symphony of a Thousand” with The Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, in Verizon Hall in the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. Performances will be Thursday, March 10 at 8 p.m.; Friday, March 11 at 8 p.m.; Saturday, March 12 at 8 p.m.; and Sunday, March 13 at 2 p.m. Learn more at www.philorch.org
Composed of students at Westminster Choir College of Rider University, the Westminster Symphonic Choir has recorded and performed with major orchestras under virtually every internationally acclaimed conductor of the past 81 years. Its first major collaboration was in 1934 when Leopold Stokowski brought the Philadelphia Orchestra to Princeton to perform Bach’s Mass in B Minor with the Westminster Symphonic Choir in the Princeton University Chapel to celebrate the opening of the Westminster Choir College campus. Recognized as one of the world’s leading choral ensembles, the choir has sung more than 350 performances with the New York Philharmonic alone. Recent seasons have included performances of Bernstein’s Mass with The Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Berg's Wozzeck with the London Philharmonia and Esa-Pekka Salonen; Villa-Lobos' Choros No. 10 and Estévez’ Cantata Criolla with the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela and Gustavo Dudamel; Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and Daniel Barenboim and Rouse’s Requiem with the New York Philharmonic and Alan Gilbert.
Performances with the Westminster Symphonic Choir are defining milestones in the musical lives of Westminster alumni.