Program Dates:  July 8-16, 2013 
James Jordan and James Whitbourn, Co-Directors 

A unique partnership with St Stephen's House, one of the halls of Oxford University, and Westminster Choir College, proudly offer a unique Choral Institute in the vibrant and beautiful city of Oxford, England. The Institute is designed to provide instruction to all levels of conductors within a fully residential Oxford college.

 The Choral Institute at Oxford is a residential course with meals taken in the college's dining room and accommodation provided in the former monastic buildings of the 19th-century Cowley Fathers, now occupied by St Stephen's House and much loved by C.S. Lewis, a former Fellow of nearby Magdalen College.

Participants will experience first hand an educational experience that is unique to Oxford University. That experience, one of total immersion in a residential college, will expose participants to an intense and exciting educational atmosphere.  In addition to studying conducting and aspects of the choral art that will build musicianship in each participant regardless of prior experience levels, participants will become immersed in a community of musicians and faculty.

Download the Conductor's Repertoire
or see below

Students from Westminster Choir College will be in attendance as the choral ensemble-in-residence. Westminster Choir College's mission of building community through music is reflected in the residential nature of this program.

• Conduct a fully prepared choir in daily classes; selected participants will conduct the ensemble in performance
• Study Benjamin Britten’s St. Nicolas via extensive recitals of Britten song repertoire by members of Williamson Voices
• Instruction at New College Oxford with Professor Higginbottom and experience the Bodleian Library of Oxford
• Study part book performance (taught by Professor Higginbottom)
• Practice and chant (taught by guest faculty member James O’Donnell)
• Study newly written conducting etudes by James Jordan as specific to expressive conducting techniques 
• Focus the expressive aspects of conducting, in addition to analysis, that lead to choral artistry at the highest levels

H.R.H. The Prince of Wales discusses plans for the Choral Music Institute with Co-Director James Whitbourn during this month's visit by the Prince to St Stephen's House, Oxford.

Program Costs

Course fee: $2,649/£1,645.  Additional $500 for 2 graduate credits

Arrivals and Departures: Arrive by 2 p.m. on July 8, 2013 with opening introduction at 4 p.m. Program ends after breakfast on July 16, 2013

Fee includes: Accommodations at Oxford University, meals, and tuition for all workshops, rehearsals and performances

Excluded: All travel costs to Oxford and optional excursions  

Register Online

or Download the Registration form 

Faculty 

In addition to James Jordan, Professor and Senior Conductor at Westminster Choir College of Rider University and James Whitbourn, Composer and Honorary Research Fellow of St Stephen’s House, Oxford, the faculty includes:

Edward Higginbottom: Professor of Choral Music, University of Oxford, and Director of Music, New College Choir, Oxford

James O’Donnell, Organist and Master of the Choristers, Westminster Abbey

Frank Abrahams, Associate Dean for the Arts and Professor of Music Education, Westminster Choir College

Robin Ward: Principal, St Stephen’s House, Oxford

Steve Pilkington, Associate Professor of Sacred Music, Westminster Choir College of Rider University  

Facilities

As a student of the Choral Institute, you will be living and studying in England's oldest University city, among its dreaming spires and cloistered quadrangles. You will be working with some of the world's preeminent thinkers in choral and sacred music and will experience firsthand the treasures of a university for which choral music has been its lifeblood in an unbroken tradition lasting more than 600 years. The faculty will include Oxford University's Professor of Choral Music Dr. Edward Higginbottom and Westminster Choir College's Senior Conductor and prolific author Dr. James Jordan.

Westminster Choir College of Rider University is one of America's most prestigious centers of study for choral music. St Stephen's House is one of the 44 Colleges and Halls that make up the University of Oxford and has a burgeoning Arts program that complements its world-renowned studies in Theology and Education. The partnership between St Stephen's House, Oxford and Westminster Choir College brings a fusion of riches and combines tradition and innovation in a fresh and extraordinary way.

Conductor's Repertoire for the Choral Music Institute at Oxford

The Westminster singers participating in the institute will come fully prepared on the entire repertoire below. The uniqueness of this experience is that instruction will focus upon artistry and the individual artistic growth of each conductor.  All conductors will study in daily group sessions with James Jordan and James Whitbourn in a unique, conservatory-style session. Conducting with the ensemble will focus on one or two works chosen by program directors and the conducting/musical aspirations of the student.

Selection of pieces will be based upon the experience of the conductor and will offer each participant a distinctly unique opportunity for growth due of the highly artistic level of the ensemble.  Singers participating, drawn from the Westminster Williamson Voices, can be heard on the Naxos CD (8.573070) Annelies by James Whitbourn. Participants should listen to this CD to understand the level of singing.  In mid-May, each participant will receive an e-mail from the director who will propose literature choices for each conductor.  Conductors will conduct full performances of the repertoire in either informal concerts or in one of the final concerts of the Institute. All conductors will receive a recording of their master classes and performance and selected portions of conducting master classes will be available for online streaming.

Study Repertoire

Tomas de Luis Victoria --- Kyrie from Requiem Mass, 1605. MS (ed. James Jordan)

Benjamin Britten- A New Year’s Carol  (Boosey and Hawkes)

Johannes Brahms (ed. James Jordan) Geistliches Lied, op. 30 (Lass Dich nur Nichts Nicht Dauren). GIA (2004)

Johannes Brahms --- Vier Quartette, Op. 92: Abendlied. Peters

Benjamin Britten --- Rejoice in the Lamb. Boosey and Hawkes (1943)

James Erb (arr.) --- Shenandoah. Lawson-Gould (1975)

Alberto Ginastera --- Lamentaciones de Jeremias Propheta: O Vos Omnes Qui Transitis Per Viam (Movement 1 Only). Mercury Music/Theodore Presser Co. (1947)

Gustav Holst --- I Love My Love. Schirmer (1917)

Nikolai Kedrov Sr. --- Otche Nash. MS Edition (ed. Elisabeth Baker)

Thomas LaVoy --- Alleluia. GIA (2012)

Paul Mealor --- O Vos Omnes. Novello (2012)

Paul Mealor --- Crucifixus  (Mvmts 1, 2 and 6). Novello (2012)

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy --- Verleih Uns Freiden. Carus-Verlag (1980)

Olivier Messiaen  --- O Sacrum Convivium. Durand (1937)

James Whitbourn  --- Kyrie from Annelies (Novello)

James Whitbourn  --- There is no Speech or Language from Annelies (Novello)