Amanda Quist, conductor

Founded in 2004, Westminster Kantorei is an auditioned chamber choir specializing in early and contemporary music. The ensemble, which is composed of approximately graduate and undergraduate students, performs regularly with some of America’s leading specialists in Baroque music, including collaborations with violinist Nancy Wilson and vocal ensemble Fuma Sacra. 

The ensemble's 2012-2013 season includes two concerts in Princeton, a workshop with the chamber choir Tenebrae, a collaboration with La Spirita, the viola da gamba consort, and particpation in the American Handel Festival to be held on the Princeton University campus this spring. Recent seasons have included performances of Bach’s Missa brevis in G Minor, cantatas, and passions, including the St. Matthew Passion at Avery Fisher Hall, with the Westminster Choir and the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Kurt Masur. The ensemble has also performed works by Monteverdi (Vespers of 1610, Sestina and Lamento della Ninfa), Buxtehude (Membra Jesu nostri), Schütz, Schein, Telemann, Zelenka, Victoria, and Palestrina, as well as a concert of Latin American Baroque music. 

Westminster Kantorei has also commissioned and premiered many works by such composers as Caleb Burhans, James Blachly, Doug Helvering, Philip Rice, Nathan Jones and Stefan Young.  Last year the ensemble premiered new works by Blake Henson, Daniel Elder, and the internationally acclaimed Swedish composer Sven-David Sandström, commissioned for the ensemble by the Soli Deo Gloria Foundation and the Westminster Choir College Department of Sacred Music.  Westminster Kantorei, joined by Fuma Sacra and the Institute Festival Orchestra, can be heard on the Albany recording Jon Magnussen: Music for Limon Dances.

While Andrew Megill is on sabbatical, Amanda Quist will conduct the ensemble. 

Westminster Kantorei Performances

Sacred and Profane: Friday, November 16, 2012
G.F. Handel: Utrecht Te Deum, Friday, April 19, 2013