Westminster Choir College Commencement Is May 10
Westminster Choir College of Rider University will hold its 79th annual Commencement ceremony Saturday, May 10 at 10:30 a.m. in the Princeton University Chapel.
Undergraduate and graduate degrees will be awarded to 112 students. John Walker, senior producer in music programming at Thirteen/WNET, will deliver the Commencement address, and Nova Thomas, assistant professor of voice, will deliver the Charge to the Graduating Classes.
Westminster’s Commencement is distinguished by outstanding choral, organ and brass music. All students participate in the ceremony, which traditionally includes the world premiere of an anthem composed and conducted by members of the graduating classes. This year’s anthem, I Would Be True by Hyung Lan Kim, will be conducted by I-Chen Yang.
A member of Westminster’s class of 1973, Commencement speaker John Walker has been nominated for five Emmy Awards, and he has received two: for La Traviata from Paris (2000) and John Adams' opera Nixon in China (1988). For 24 years he has written and produced the annual From Vienna: The New Year's Celebration, hosted by Walter Cronkite, as well as every Carnegie Hall Opening Night for television. Prior to joining Thirteen/WNET New York, he was music assistant to Leonard Bernstein, traveling extensively throughout the world with the major orchestras of Europe and America.
In addition to serving on Westminster’s voice faculty, Nova Thomas is currently interim director of the College’s music theater program. She is also professor of professional practice and departmental chair at the New School for Drama, New School University (formerly the Actors Studio Drama School) in New York City. She has performed in the opera houses of Paris, London, Dublin, Hong Kong and New York.
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Note: This ceremony is held in the Princeton University Chapel. Pre-ceremony music begins at 9:45 a.m. The ceremony begins at 10:30 a.m. and lasts for approximately two hours. To reach Anne Sears the day of Commencement call 215-208-0851.
