The weekend of October 28 and 29 will be filled with choral music as three of Westminster’s ensembles present their first performances of the season.

Saturday, October 28, at 7:30 p.m. Westminster Chapel Choir and Westminster Schola Cantorum will present Westminster’s first full concert at the new Princeton High School Performing Arts Center.

Entitled “A Choral Tapestry,” the concert will feature the Westminster Chapel Choir and Westminster Schola Cantorum performing works for female and male ensembles, as well as mixed voices. The program will include Lauridsen’s O Nata Lux, Handel’s Zadok the Priest, Pärt’s Bogoroditse Devo, Poulenc’s Quatre Petites prières de Saint Francois d’Assise and Stravinsky’s Four Russian Peasant Songs. Conductors James Jordan, Sun Min Lee and Andrew Megill will share the podium.

Founded in 1949, the Westminster Chapel Choir takes its name from Westminster’s rich history of leadership in the field of sacred music. Composed of students in their first year of study at Westminster, the ensemble has evolved over the years, and today its repertoire includes both sacred and secular works.

Westminster Schola Cantorum is the core choral experience for students in their second year of undergraduate study at Westminster. 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.

James Jordan is recognized and praised from many quarters in the musical world as one of the nation’s pre-eminent conductors, writers and innovators in choral music. He has been called a “visionary” by The Choral Journal. His career and publications have been devoted to innovative educational changes in the choral art which have been embraced around the world.

Sun Min Lee has led concert tours along the East Coast with the Westminster Chapel Choir. She has collaborated with many renowned conductors, including Anton Armstrong, Stephen Paulus, Kathy Romey and Dale Warland. Last season she prepared the Westminster Symphonic Choir for performances of Mozart's Coronation Mass with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Lorin Maazel.

Andrew Megill has prepared choruses for many of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors. In addition to serving on Westminster’s faculty he is artistic director of Fuma Sacra, recognized as one of America's leading professional ensembles specializing in Renaissance and Baroque vocal music. He is also music director of the Masterwork Chorus, and chorus master for the operas of the Spoleto Festival USA. He was recently appointed associate conductor/director of choral activities for the Carmel Bach Festival in Carmel, CA.

Tickets are $15.

Sunday, October 29, at 7:30 p.m. the Westminster Jubilee Singers will present “An Autumn Evening of Inspirational Music,” in Bristol Chapel on the Westminster campus. The program will feature the music for which this lively and popular ensemble has become known - music from the African-American experience: spirituals, hymns and gospel songs. They will be joined by guest artist Kimberly King-Harley, a Jubilee Singers alumna.

Conducted by J. Donald Dumpson, the Westminster Jubilee Singers have been praised by critics for their “pinpoint accuracy” and music making with “a fine sheen.” The ensemble has also appeared at the legendary Apollo Theater in New York as part of the Children’s Defense Fund’s 30th anniversary, and with the renowned Sweet Honey in the Rock at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark.

Conductor J. Donald Dumpson is equally at home in the classroom, in the church and on the stage. A member of Westminster’s sacred music faculty, he is also minister of music at Bright Hope Baptist Church in Philadelphia and has taken the Bright Hope Celestial Choir from the church sanctuary to television and Broadway.

Kimberly King-Harley earned a bachelor’s degree from Westminster Choir College. She is currently assistant choir director for the adult and youth choirs and a private vocal coach at the 24,000 member Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, NY.

Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for seniors and students. Rider University faculty, staff and students may receive one free ticket for each performance. For tickets call the box office at 609-921-2663 between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. weekdays.

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