Westminster Schola Cantorum Days of Service Include March 11 Concert in Robbinsville
Westminster Schola Cantorum, conducted by Sue Ellen Page, will present a concert on Saturday, March 11 at 8:00 p.m. at the Robbinsville Performing Arts Center in Robbinsville High School in Robbinsville, N.J.
The performance, entitled “Hearts and Hands and Voices,” is part of the ensemble’s three-day service project that begins in Mercer County on March 11th and ends in Boston on March 13th. At Robbinsville the choir will perform works from both the core choral repertoire and contemporary composers. A highlight will be selections from Mozart’s opera The Abduction from the Seraglio. In addition, the ensemble will perform Gerald Finzi’s My Spirit Sang All Day, The Turtle Dove by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Blackbird by John Lennon, and Undine Smith Moore’s I Will Trust In the Lord.
In addition to this concert, on March 11th members of Westminster Schola Cantorum will participate in service projects throughout Mercer County. They will pack and deliver food through the Crisis Ministry in Trenton; sing for residents of an Alzheimer’s unit, a rehab unit and at nursing homes; teach and entertain children through HomeFront’s Family Preservation Center in West Trenton; and tutor members of the Trenton Children’s Chorus in music reading skills.
On Sunday, March 12th the ensemble will travel to Boston to participate in the Common Cathedral worship service, which is held each Sunday on Boston’s Common for the homeless and other members of the Boston community. Sunday evening they will present a concert with four local children’s choruses in Newton Centre, Mass. On Monday, March 13th, they will participate in a choral workshop at Boston Arts Academy.
“At the heart of Westminster’s mission is a commitment to service through music,” says Westminster’s Dean Robert Annis. “Westminster Schola Cantorum’s ‘Hearts and Hands and Voices’ project is a fine example of our students using their talents to serve the greater community. I thank Sue Ellen Page for her leadership in this initiative.”
The 90-voice Westminster Schola Cantorum is the core choral experience for students in their second year of undergraduate study at Westminster Choir College. The ensemble performs a wide range of repertoire in a variety of genres from the Baroque to the 21st century. The choir also focuses on smaller masterworks, a cappella repertoire, and music from diverse cultural backgrounds.
Sue Ellen Page is widely known for her work in training teachers to conduct and conductors to teach. She returns to the Westminster faculty this year while continuing her many years as a musician on the staff of the Nassau Presbyterian Church in Princeton. She holds two degrees from Westminster, which honored her in 1989 with the Alumni Merit Award for “distinguished achievement in the field of children's music.” In addition, she holds the Specialist Diploma from the Mozarteum, Salzburg where she studied Orff-Schulwerk. Sue Ellen Page was honored with the YWCA Princeton Tribute to Women award as one whose work is consistent with the YWCA’s mission to “empower women and eliminate racism.” Recipient of the 2005 New Jersey Governor’s Award for Volunteerism in the Arts, she served as artistic director of the Trenton Children's Chorus for 15 years.
Tickets for the concert at Robbinsville High School, which is at 155 Robbinsville-Edinbug Road, are $15 for adults and $10 for seniors and students. For tickets or to receive Westminster’s 2005-2006 season catalog, call the box office at (609) 921-2663.
