Wednesdays at Westminster

It’s Wednesday night and I am sitting in the basement of the Talbott Library at Westminster Choir College preparing for my weekly night class. Though I'm a third-year English major who lives on the Lawrenceville campus, this is the first time I've taken a class on the Princeton campus. The free shuttle from Lawrenceville to Princeton took about 20 minutes, a perfect option for me since I don't have a car on campus. The class is American Identity in the Arts, taught by Dr. Jack Sullivan, and fittingly enough, tonight’s topic is American music. The course covers American poetry, film and music, and as we sit down for the night, Dr. Sullivan is eager to get started, and the class is just as eager to listen.

We do more than just take in his lectures. Last week, I had the privilege of hearing the Westminster Symphonic Choir sing in the Princeton Chapel, and now sitting among some of the students who actually performed last Wednesday night, I realize how talented the students are. And as we start our lesson in American music, I realize the benefit of the extra time and effort it takes to travel from Lawrenceville to Princeton. The students deep love and appreciation for the topic helps me to understand it better. They offer up viewpoints of things that I hadn’t even considered.

Tonight’s class is not about analyzing song lyrics; rather, it's focused on listening to the sounds of the instruments. We hear choral and orchestral pieces from operas and symphonies, and when I don’t quite understand what certain terminology means, the Westminster students are happy to fill me in on the finer points of this kind of music. Students are even willing to sing back choral pieces to reiterate their points. 

The end of class comes sooner than expected and we quickly discuss what we’ll be covering next week. Dr. Sullivan reminds students of his course offering next semester focusing on the works of Alfred Hitchcock, which will also be offered on the Westminster campus as a night class in the very same room. 

I plan on registering for the class next week, looking forward to getting to know more of the students on our Princeton campus. When students start planning their schedule for spring semester, I urge them to consider moving out of your comfort zone and opening up their experience by taking a class on a different campus. Whether studying choral music major or accounting, we can all learn from one another by exploring all that Rider has to offer.