Westminster Chapel Choir to Present Spring Concerts In April
The Westminster Chapel Choir, conducted by Sun Min Lee, will present its second spring concert Saturday, April 16 at 8:00 p.m. in Bristol Chapel on the Westminster campus, Hamilton Avenue and Walnut Lane in Princeton.
The concert, entitled “The Road Home,” will celebrate music’s central role in the journey of life. It will feature works by Beethoven, Vaughan Williams, Mathias, Poulenc, Brahms and Villa-Lobos, including the endearing and melodic composition for which the concert is named – The Road Home by American composer Stephen Paulus.
Composed of the newest undergraduates at Westminster Choir College of Rider University, the Westminster Chapel Choir, performs a varied repertoire. Founded in 1946, it has toured since 1960, performing in churches, schools, and concerts halls throughout America. It has performed with the Greater Trenton Symphony and the Queens Symphony. It has also sung for the tree-lighting ceremony in Rockefeller Center in New York. The Choir can be seen on several instructional videos used throughout the world for the training of conductors and music educators: Group Vocal Technique: The Choral Ensemble Warm-Up; Ensemble Diction (Hinshaw Music); and Choral Ensemble Intonation (GIA Music). Its newest recording is An Evening of Readings & Carols. The ensemble has just completed a one-week concert tour to the Mid-Atlantic states.
Sun Min Lee teaches both undergraduate and graduate conducting courses at Westminster Choir College. Critics have praised her conducting style, saying “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.”
A native Korean, Ms. Lee is currently completing her doctoral studies in conducting at the Eastman School of Music. She has also worked as a clinician for high school choirs in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and the Rochester area. Ms. Lee has also served as a faculty member at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, N.Y., directing the Community-Colleges Chorus.
She holds a Master of Music degree in choral conducting from Westminster Choir College, where she was a full scholarship recipient. While at Westminster, she studied with Joseph Flummerfelt, Allen Crowell, and Andrew Megill and sang in the Westminster Choir under the direction of Dr. Flummerfelt.
Ms. Lee also holds an Advanced Diploma in Kodaly Method from the Zoltan Kodaly Pedagogical Institute of Music in Kecskemet, Hungary, where she studied conducting with Peter Erdei. Her Bachelor degree in church music is from the Presbyterian College in Seoul, Korea, where she studied with Dr. Chang Hoon Park. Her appearances as guest lecturer and conductor include working with the GwangJu Civic Chorus, Presbyterian College in Seoul, Rochester Oratorio Society, and Kodaly International Seminar.
Celebrating over 75 years of music excellence, Westminster Choir College of Rider University, in Princeton, N.J., is a four-year music college and graduate school with a unique choral emphasis that prepares men and women for careers as music leaders in schools, universities, churches and professional and community organizations. It has been estimated that each week Westminster graduates conduct and teach over one million musicians worldwide.
Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students and seniors. For tickets and information please call the Westminster box office at 609-921-2663 between 11:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.
