Westminster Choirs to Perform in Princeton University Chapel on October 30
Entitled “Music for the End of Time,” the program will begin with a dramatic procession during which the choirs will sing Ferguson’s The Church’s One Foundation. The evening will also include Rutter’s All Creatures of Our God and King and O Praise the Lord of Heaven. Two highlights will be Gustav Holst’s Hymn of Jesus, performed by the 200-voice Westminster Symphonic Choir, conducted by Andrew Megill, and Visions of Hildegard, Part III by Stephen Paulus, who will conduct his own work
First performed in 1920, Holst’s Hymn of Jesus was an immediate and overwhelming success. It combines the medieval plainsong of Holy Week hymns, Pange Lingua and Vexilla Regis, with Holst’s individual treatment of texts from the Apocryphal Acts of St. John, translated from the original Greek by Holst himself. The words are supposedly attributed to Jesus and his disciples the night before the crucifixion.
Composer Stephen Paulus has been hailed as “...a bright, fluent inventor with a ready lyric gift” (The New Yorker). His music has been described by critics and program annotators as rugged, angular, lyrical, lean, rhythmically aggressive, original, often gorgeous, moving, and uniquely American. The Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote of him, “he writes in a musical language that has been characterized as ... irresistible in kinetic energy and haunting in lyrical design.”
His prolific output of more than two hundred works is represented in many genres, including music for orchestra, chorus, chamber ensembles, solo voice, keyboard and opera. He has received commissions from the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, The Houston Symphony and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, with subsequent performances coming from the orchestras of Los Angeles, Philadelphia, St. Louis, the National Symphony Orchestra, and the BBC Radio Orchestra. He has served as composer in residence for the orchestras of Atlanta, Minnesota, Tucson and Annapolis, and his works have been championed by such eminent conductors as Sir Neville Marriner, Kurt Masur, Christoph von Dohanyi, Leonard Slatkin, Yoel Levi, the late Robert Shaw, and numerous others.
His choral works have been performed and recorded by some of the most distinguished choruses in the United States, including the New York Concert Singers, Dale Warland Singers, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Robert Shaw Festival Singers, New Music Group of Philadelphia, Master Chorale of Washington DC, Vocal Arts Ensemble of Cincinnati, Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and dozens of other professional, community, church and college choirs. He is one of the most frequently recorded contemporary composers with his music being represented on over fifty recordings.
Guest conductor Anton Armstrong is professor of music at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., and conductor of the highly acclaimed St. Olaf Choir, a position he assumed in 1990. Armstrong is a graduate of St. Olaf and earned a master of music degree at the University of Illinois and a doctor of musical arts degree from Michigan State University.
Armstrong conducted the St. Olaf Choir in critically acclaimed concert performances at the 1999 National Convention of the American Choral Directors Association in Chicago, Ill., and the Sixth World Symposium on Choral Music in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., in 2002. Together with the St. Olaf Orchestra, the choir has appeared in a national broadcast of Garrison Keillor's “A Prairie Home Companion” radio program. The ensemble has recorded 11 CDs during Armstrong's tenure as conductor - including 10 with St. Olaf Records and the ensemble's first international recording, released in January 2003, with Linn Records of London, England.
Armstrong is widely recognized for his work with youth and children's choral music. He has been conductor of the Oregon Bach Festival Youth Choral Academy since 1998. In the summer of 2001, he served as co-conductor of the World Youth Choir sponsored by the International Federation of Choral Music. He served for more than 20 years on the summer faculty of the American Boychoir School in Princeton, and is a member of its board of trustees.
In recent years he has guest conducted such noted ensembles as the Utah Symphony and Symphony Chorus, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. He has collaborated in concert with Bobby McFerrin and Garrison Keillor.
Westminster Chapel Choir, conducted by Sun Min Lee, is composed of Westminster’s newest undergraduates. Founded in 1946, it performs in churches, schools and concert halls. Its 2004-2005 season includes a one-week concert tour of the Mid-Atlantic states. A critic has written of Sun Min Lee “the graceful and fluid movements of the conductor, reminiscent of a ballerina, combined precision and sensitivity, and with animated facial expressions she conveyed a clear grasp of what she expected from the musicians before her.”
Westminster Kantorei, conducted by Andrew Megill, is a chamber choir specializing in music of the Renaissance and Baroque eras, with occasional forays into later repertoire (including new works). The ensemble is composed of 16 of Westminster’s most talented students. Andrew Megill is recognized as one of the leading choral conductors of his generation, known for his passionate artistry and unusually wide-ranging repertoire, extending from Renaissance music to newly commissioned works. He is also artistic director of Fuma Sacra, Westminster’s ensemble-in-residence and assistant conductor of the Westminster Symphonic Choir.
Westminster Williamson Voices, conducted by James Jordan, is a select ensemble of 40 singers who combine performance with educational outreach. It is named for the founder of Westminster Choir College, John Finley Williamson, who devoted his life to bringing choral music at the highest level to churches and schools, communicating the human mission of choral singing. One of America's most respected choral conductors and educators, James Jordan is also an internationally recognized pedagogue. His theories of rhythm pedagogy and movement are now widely applied inmusic education for the teaching of rhythm to children and adults.
Tickets for this performance are $30, $25 and $15. For tickets or information call Westminster’s box office at 609-921-2663 between the hours of 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.
