Westminster Community Chorus and Chamber Choir Celebrate Conductor’s Tenth Anniversary
The Westminster Community Chorus and Chamber Choir will celebrate Devin Mariman’s 10th season as their conductor with a special concert on Saturday, April 26 at 8 p.m. in Bristol Chapel on campus of Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton.
The program, entitled “For M Is Musick,” will feature Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb, Corigiliano’s Fern Hill, and Haydn’s Missa in Angustiis (Lord Nelson Mass). The choral ensembles will be joined by an orchestra of professional instrumentalists.
The Westminster Conservatory Community Chorus is composed of singers from all walks of life who share a love of choral music. Since its inception in 1996 as part of Westminster Conservatory’s choral program, the group has developed a reputation for excellence in the Westminster tradition. The chorus performs a wide variety of accompanied and unaccompanied choral music, and it frequently collaborates with the Westminster Community Orchestra. Works performed by the choir include the Monteverdi Vespers of 1610, the Christmas portion of Handel’s Messiah, Beethoven’s Mass in C, Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor, K. 427, Honegger’s King David, Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem, and Orff’s Carmina Burana.
The Westminster Conservatory Community Chamber Choir in its seventh season. It complements the Westminster Community Chorus as a select ensemble that performs music especially suited to a smaller choir – motets, madrigals and other works – and it frequently features members of the group as soloists. The ensemble has performed a wide variety of music ranging from the Renaissance and Baroque, often with period instruments, to modern including Bach’s Lobet den Herren, Carissimi’s Jephthe, Charpentier’s In Nativitatem Domini Nostri Jesu Christi Canticum, and the Vivaldi Gloria, as well as Brahms’ Liebeslieder Walzer and Schumann’s Spanisches Liederspiel.
Devin Mariman is in his 10th season as conductor of the Westminster Community Chorus and in his seventh season as founding conductor of the Westminster Community Chamber Choir. He has conducted major works such as Handel’s Messiah, the Duruflé Requiem, Honegger’s King David, and a critically acclaimed performance of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. In addition to his work with the Community Chorus, Mr. Mariman is adjunct assistant professor of voice at Westminster Choir College and chorusmaster for the Westminster Conservatory’s Children’s Opera. Previously, he served as adjunct professor of conducting at Westminster and the College of New Jersey and as conductor of the Garden State Philharmonic Chorus. He has taught middle school and high school students as director of the vocal division of the New Jersey Governor’s School of the Arts and as an instructor in the Westminster Conservatory Young Artist program. He has also led music in church settings and devised thematic sacred programs that have been presented at Westminster Choir College and the Princeton Theological Seminary.
Tickets are $25 for adults and $15 for senior citizens and students. To order, call the Westminster box office at 609-921-2663 weekdays between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m.
