Westminster's Commencement Is May 14

Westminster Choir College of Rider University will hold its 76th annual Commencement ceremony Saturday, May 14 in the Princeton University Chapel.  Pre-ceremony music begins at 9:45 a.m. and the procession begins at 10:30 a.m. 

Undergraduate and graduate degrees will be awarded to 75 students.  Internationally renowned opera star and Westminster alumna Jennifer Larmore will deliver the Commencement address.  Nancianne Parrella, accompanist for the Westminster Symphonic Choir and Westminster Choir, will deliver the Charge to the graduating classes.  Honorary doctorates will be awarded to Jennifer Larmore and Weston Noble, noted conductor and a member of the faculty at Luther College.

A 1980 graduate of Westminster Choir College, Jennifer Larmore has enjoyed a brilliant international career in which operas of Rossini, Bellini, Mozart and Handel have come to figure prominently. She has appeared in her signature role ‘Rosina’ from Il barbiere di Siviglia to extraordinary acclaim in Paris, Amsterdam, Bonn, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Bilbao, Milan, Vienna and London. It was this role that she chose for her Metropolitan Opera début in 1995.

Miss Larmore’s love of early music has allowed her to perform and record the role of ‘Ottavia’ from Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea in Bologna, Montpellier and the Early Music Festival in Innsbruck, Austria. As a champion of the music of Handel, Miss Larmore has triumphed in the title role in Giulio Cesare in Amsterdam, Lisbon, Paris, Beaune, Berlin, Montreux and Brussels and in two seasons at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Her recording of this work on the Harmonia Mundi label was selected to receive the Gramophone Award for Best Baroque Opera of the Year.

Jennifer Larmore is equally at home on the concert stage with a wide-ranging repertory extending from Handel’s Messiah and Vivaldi’s Magnificat to Rossini’s Stabat Mater and Mahler’s Rückertlieder, which she has sung not only at the Vienna Musikverein with Riccardo Muti and the Vienna Philharmonic, but also at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam with Donald Runnicles.  She gave her debut with the New York Philharmonic under the direction of Kurt Masur with Mahler’s Lied von der Erde.

Jennifer Larmore’s prodigious discography now extends to nearly four dozen recordings.  Her 2004-2005 season has included Elisabetta d’Ingliterra at the Teatro Colon, La Cenerentola in Zurich, Semiramide in La Coruna and Alcina in Oviedo. She will return to the MET in 2005 for the world premiere of An American Tragedy.

“Jennifer Larmore exemplifies Westminster’s commitment to musical excellence,” says President Mordechai Rozanski.  “She has also been a loyal alumna, serving her alma mater by performing at benefit concerts in New York and Princeton and offering valuable career advice to our students.”

Weston Noble, director of music activities at Luther College, is an internationally known conductor and clinician.  He has conducted more than 800 music festivals,  including  75 All-State bands, choirs and orchestras, and he is the only director asked to conduct All-State groups in all three media—bands, choirs and orchestras.  He has led the Luther College Choir on eight concert tours of Europe including Norway, Denmark, Germany, Republic of Czech, Hungary, Rumania, Poland, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

He was the first recipient of the Outstanding Music Educator of the United States Award presented by the National Federation of High School Associations.  His other honors include the Robert Shaw Citation, awarded by the American Choral Directors Association, and the St. Olaf Medallion, awarded by the King of Norway.

He was the first recipient of the Weston H. Noble Award for lifetime achievement in the choral art, which was established by the North Central Division of American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) in his honor and is presented every two years to an outstanding choral conductor within the North Central ACDA.

“Weston Noble has played an important role in Westminster’s Summer Session workshops,” says President Mordechai Rozanski.  “We look forward to welcoming him to campus again in July, when he will participate in the highly regarded Westminster Conducting Institute.”

Distinguished by its unique choral focus, Westminster Choir College is the home of the world-renowned Westminster Choir, which has performed and recorded with virtually all of our era’s great orchestras and conductors.  Its commencement ceremony is distinguished by outstanding choral, organ and brass music.  Admission is by ticket only.